


Kiss Me Fool

by bendyourspoon



Category: Smallville
Genre: AU - Season 6, Chlark, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-23
Updated: 2013-11-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 09:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1055154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bendyourspoon/pseuds/bendyourspoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the world was ending, she decided to let him know how she felt. When it didn't end, he let her know he felt the same way. But maybe their feelings aren't enough for Chloe and Clark to have a relationship that actually works. When it seems like their lives are too difficult for anything more than friendship to ever work, will love win, or will they just let it go?</p>
<p>AU, beginning with 6x01.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story I started a really long time ago on FanFiction.net, and I'm still working (very slowly) on getting it finished. I wasn't going to post it here, but I've started writing another fic (one that would actually work very well with this site, I think), which is not a sequel per se, although the storyline could fit in this universe, with the events of this story as a kind of explanation as to how things begin the way they do. Besides that, though, the stories won't be linked in any way.
> 
> So, I'll post it on both sites from now on as I work on it, and hopefully I'll finish it at some point before I turn 80.

_Tell me who should I be to make you love me?_

_Tell me what does it mean to be alone?_

The events of the day were still fresh on her mind. The newsroom was buzzing, people all around, but Chloe Sullivan couldn't help but to feel alone. When the entire world was crumbling, the earth itself even shuddering, Chloe sat by herself at the Daily Planet, alone.

Hours earlier, she had kissed the man of her dreams. She wanted him to know how she felt in case... well, she couldn't even think about it. She had no idea where Clark was, but she had very little hope. He had gone off to face an impossible evil, and now Chloe had to keep herself from crying every time she had thought about him.

In the moment, when the world around them was failing, Chloe had thought they would both die. She thought the world was going to end and there would be no more, well... anything. That was almost bearable, but this... living without him. Breathing, while he most likely was not. This was more than she could take.

While the only romantic moment the two of them had ever encountered had been five years ago at a spring formal where he had deserted her, from the moment she had met him, she had never truly been alone. Clark had accepted her into his life when she had to move away from everything that she loved into a town where she knew absolutely no one, and ever since then they had been best friends. In this capacity, he was always there for her. She could turn to him for anything. They may have had their differences from time to time, but she ultimately knew they would always work things out. It was in their blood to work things out. But now, she didn't have that anymore. She was completely and utterly alone.

Wiping a lone tear that had managed to escape despite her best efforts, Chloe quickly returned to her desk so that she could immerse herself into her work rather than having to think. _Everything's going to be okay_ , she told herself. It was a lie.

**Xx**

Clark made his way through the Daily Planet, mentally preparing himself for the worst. He had already seen that Lois and Lana were okay, but the last time he had seen Chloe, she was alone in a deserted building where bad things were already happening. He had saved her from the car that crashed through the basement window, but after that he wasn't there for her. He had no clue what had happened after he left, and the thought that Chloe might not be alright was torture.

The steps down to the basement seemed to be taking forever. He had wanted to superspeed, but there were people everywhere, and the risk he would be seen was too high. Besides, if Chloe was down there, he didn't want to give her a heart attack, the way she always joked he did whenever he had done it previously. He was eager to see if she was there, but he didn't want to scare her anymore than she had undoubtedly been scared all day.

While Clark was trapped in the Phantom Zone, the world was falling to pieces, and Chloe was there... alone. At least the others had real people, real interactions, whether they were good or evil, they were people. As far as Clark knew, Chloe had no one, and that must've been hell. Who knows what he would have done if he hadn't met Raya while in the Phantom Zone. Trying to make sense out of an upside down world without anybody to help would've been impossible. Then again, without Raya, he would've died during that first phantom attack. This thought made him worry about Chloe even more. She herself had been trapped in a crazy world and there was no one there to help her through it.

He suddenly wished he hadn't made the mistake of going for Brainiac instead of Lex. He hadn't wanted to kill Lex, but thinking back on everything that had happened that day, it would've been the better choice. Lex Luthor was alive, but at what cost?

The bottom of the steps started to get closer and closer, and as they did, his anxiety rose. He couldn't remember a time when he had felt so nervous. And in his life, he had been in some pretty nerve-wracking situations.

He took a deep breath as he reached the bottom of the stairs leading down to her workplace. In this moment, he couldn't put his finger on it, but something within him felt different. It was something to do with Chloe, he just couldn't figure out what inside him had changed.

His heart skipped a beat as he scanned the room for that face, but sure enough, there it was. Hard at work at whatever it was she was working on, just in regular Chloe fashion. He stood there staring at her for what felt like minutes, but could only possibly have been a few seconds. She looked up from her work, and caught his stare. Her eyes widened as she took him in, and her face brightened up. She put down whatever she was doing and ran to him.

"Clark!" she said, the distance between them growing smaller and smaller. "Oh my God, I thought you were dead!" With that, she made her way into his arms, and he felt like he could stay in this moment forever.

Breaking the hug, he looked into her eyes. "Hi," he said, trying to form a complete thought. He hadn't actually thought of what he would say if he found her there. "Umm... so did I, for a minute there."

She surveyed his face as he did the same to her. "What happened?" she asked him. "Where did you go?"

Flashes of the Phantom Zone filled his mind. He didn't need to tell Chloe all of that just yet. "A place I never want to go again," he said. The worry for her that he felt before he saw her face again started to flood back a little. "Are you okay?"

A smile washed over her face. "Yeah, everything's great now that you're here," she said, going in for another hug.

Again, he didn't want this moment to end, but he had to clear the air once and for all. Everything that was happening was so confusing, and they just needed to figure things out right now. Not sure of how to approach the topic, Clark did the best he could. "Chloe..." he started. "Before I left, there was this moment where we, um..."

 _Kissed_. Why couldn't he just say it? His emotions rose as he waited for what she would say next. He didn't know how he would react to anything she would say, but it needed to come out either way. They couldn't leave it hanging in the air forever. The way their friendship had felt for awhile after freshman year was somewhat chilling, and he realized it was because they had never actually talked about what had happened between them.

"Yeah, that..." she trailed off. It was obvious she was uncomfortable about it, and Clark hated making her feel that way, but for once in his life he needed an honest conversation about how everyone was feeling.

"Yeah," he said. "That."

"Clark, I'm not going to lie to you," she started. It was refreshing to hear those words. She wouldn't have said them to him if she wasn't actually going to be honest. "Somewhere, deep down, I've always had feelings for you. I showed them to you at spring formal freshman year, but things didn't exactly turn out as I hoped. So I buried them. I pushed them aside. But they were still there." She inhaled. "When I kissed you earlier... I thought the world was ending. I thought we were going to die and I needed to let you know how I feel about you."

Clark looked deep into her eyes. He couldn't remember a time when Chloe had ever been so open with him, and for some reason he was reacting better to it than he thought he would. He thought if she told him she had feelings for him, he would have to break her heart again, and he hated to see heartbroken Chloe. But that wasn't what he was feeling at all. He was feeling something... different. Feelings that had never been associated with Chloe before.

"But please, Clark," she continued.  "This friendship means way too much to me to let my feelings for you get in between us. Please... just forget it ever happened."

She looked to the ground and Clark thought he caught a glimpse of sadness in her eyes. And he hated it.

"Is that really what you want?" he asked starting to smile a little bit. Chloe nodded, not looking up at him. "Are you sure?"

Finally Chloe looked at him and saw his face. For a second she seemed confused, but his change of feelings for her was obvious in this moment, and it didn't take her long to figure it out. As she did, her face broke into a huge smile which filled Clark with feelings of glee.

He was a bit unsure at first, but his mind for once actually matched what he knew Chloe was feeling, and he felt a sudden urge to act on it. He pulled her in for the most unexpected kiss he had ever given.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clark and Chloe need to talk about what happened, but Chloe also needs to work out some unresolved feelings when she finds out Clark is sick.

_6x02 - Sneeze_

Getting ready for work had never seemed to take so long before. Then again, she didn't usually have a date coming for lunch. Chloe kept trying to tell herself that it was just Clark... she had known him for years, and he already knew her for what she was. But still, their relationship had changed. It was unclear about how much, they were going to talk about that at lunch, but it had undeniably changed.

Just as Chloe finished putting on her heels, her cousin came crashing through the door. "You'll never believe what just happened to me, Chlo'!"

She didn't know about that. Having lived in Smallville for the past six years, Chloe had come to believe that anything was possible. The last week had proven that more than anything. _Clark had kissed her_. To be fair, she had kissed Clark, then the world had almost ended, and _then_ Clark had kissed her. But still...

"Try me," she said, truly curious as to what could possibly come out of Lois's mouth.

Lois nearly bursted with excitement as she started into her story. "Well, I was just out for a jog, completely zoning out the entire world, when a barn door _literally_ falls out of the sky." Chloe's eyebrows raised. Definitely a strange occurrence, even for Smallville.

Chloe had about a million questions and was about to start in on them, but Lois interjected letting her know that the story was not over. "So I went to Clark's house," she continued. "It was nearby and I had to tell someone right away. But I got there, and Clark was sick, and I looked out the window, and guess what?"

"Wait," Chloe said, not paying attention to the open question in the air. "Clark was sick?"

" _I so knew it!_ " Lois shrieked, confusing Chloe even more.

She looked to her cousin for answers, and Lois obliged. "I noticed something was different when I was at his house," she said. "Yeah, he was sick, but he was kind of in a more cheery mood. And then I come here and," she gestured to what Chloe was wearing. "Well, then I decided to throw in the little 'Clark is sick' to see how you reacted, and well, I'm not stupid."

Chloe glared at Lois. "Just for your information," she asserted. "I would've reacted the same way even if nothing was different. He's been my best friend forever."

"Uh huh," Lois said with disbelief.

It was true, though. Clark had superpowers. He didn't get sick. And the last time he had gotten sick, due to kryptonite powder... Chloe shuddered. Not only had he almost died, but he had proven to her that his feelings for Lana were stronger than his feelings for her. She couldn't have that association right now.

But Lois didn't know the real reason she was worried. For Clark's sake, she caved and just let Lois believe it was because she now thought of Clark in a different light.

Lois wrapped her arms around Chloe. "Chlo', I'm so happy for you!" Chloe couldn't help but smile as she thought that, for once, she herself was happy. Lois pulled away from the hug and searched Chloe's eyes. "So, I want details..."

The truth was, Chloe didn't really know the details. That was what was going to be sorted out at lunch. "Uh, what did you see when you looked out the window?" Chloe changed the subject back to Lois's story from earlier. She was curious, anyway.

"What?" Lois said, and then she realized what Chloe was talking about. "Oh, it was strangest thing. So, I look out the window, and I notice... _his barn door was missing_!"

Strange, indeed.

**Xx**

Clark made his way down the steps to the basement once again. This time they didn't seem like they took nearly as long. Despite the fact that his entire body felt exhausted after yet another night trying to help clean up Metropolis, there was a slight spring in his step. Chloe and him were going to talk about what had happened between them after Dark Thursday. It could go either way, but Clark wasn't sure either way it would be a bad thing. After having been friends with her for so long, it felt odd thinking about her romantically. He did kind of want to see what could come of it, but he was pretty sure he would be fine just remaining friends with Chloe. He really had nothing to lose, he just didn't want Chloe to get hurt. _Again_.

He again scanned the room for her pretty blonde hair and contagious smile. When he saw her, she wasn't smiling. She wasn't exactly frowning either, but ever since the kiss, he could only picture her smiling. He had always liked her smile, even when he was sure all they would ever be was friends. She just had one of those smiles you just couldn't ignore. And quite frankly, the possibility of seeing it more often made him even happier.

Chloe was too busy staring at her computer screen to notice that he had come in, and he considered speeding up to her and surprising her. He had done it to her a million times before, but all of a sudden it seemed like such a childish way to greet her. Instead, he casually strolled over to where she was sitting, delighting in every extra thought he had that he wouldn't have had if he had sped that ten steps instead. Yes, this was so much more grown up.

As he reached her desk, she looked up to him, smiling softly. There it was. _That smile_. Only, as soon as she looked into his eyes, her smile disappeared. Was it really that obvious that he wasn't feeling so hot?

"Are you ok?" she asked with genuine concern in her voice.

For this, he mustered up a smile of his own. "I'm fine," he said. "Really." Wanting to change the subject, he glanced at her computer. She had an article about tornadoes up. "What are you working on?"

She looked up at him. "Covering your ass," she said simply. "Yet again."

Clark furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, is there someone else in Smallville missing a barn door?" her smile had returned. Thank god for small favors.

"Oh," he said. "That."

"Yeah, that," she laughed. "So, what happened?"

Clark looked away, afraid to maintain eye contact. There was no way he could say this without completely embarrassing himself. "I, uh-" he started, but didn't exactly want to finish. She motioned for him to go one. He knew he was going to have to just come out and say it, though. "I sneezed."

Chloe looked up at him, obviously trying, and mostly failing, to stop herself from laughing. "You sneezed?" she asked, incredulously. She stared into his eyes. "And then?"

"And then the barn door flew off," he said sheepishly. It only made Chloe laugh more. He almost wished she weren't enjoying this so much, but then he wouldn't hear her laugh. "And now Lois is all over my case," he continued. "She's trying to write a story."

"Don't worry about Lois," she said. "That's what the tornadoes are for."

Clark wanted to ask, but he trusted her, so he didn't push the subject. Instead, he just stood there, kind of feeling like an idiot.

After a while of awkward silence, Chloe laughed again. "Are you sure lunch is still a good idea?" she asked, obviously teasing him. "You might sneeze me away."

"Don't worry, Chloe," he said. "If I have to sneeze, I'll turn the other way."

After they had ordered their food at the small, cozy restaurant, Clark knew the time for "the talk" had come. He didn't know how exactly to start it so, staring at the table, he said, "So..."

"So..." she echoed. She looked into his eyes. He had been feeling worse, he hadn't even been able to x-ray the menu, and he knew by the sobering look in Chloe's eyes that his own betrayed him. "Really, Clark... are you okay?"

"It's nothing," Clark said. It was half true. He had begun to worry a little himself, but it wasn't anything serious. Of that he was sure.

Chloe didn't look to convinced as she started to dig around in her bag. Wondering what she could possibly be looking for, Clark waited patiently.

She pulled out a crinkled envelope and he thought he could make out his name written on it. She looked at the envelope, and then at him. "I thought that... maybe... this might be relevant right now," she said quietly. Clark noticed there was a hint of nervousness in her voice. Whatever it was, he could tell she wanted it to be relevant. He suddenly became very curious to see what was inside of the envelope.

Chloe handed it across the table, and Clark tried to keep him eagerness in check. He casually took the envelope from her and pulled out a letter.

Unfolding the crinkled paper, Clark read aloud, " _I want to let you in on a secret, Clark. I'm not who you think I am._ "

A glance in Chloe's direction revealed her insecurities over him reading this. "What is this?" he wondered aloud.

She looked down at the table and then back at him. He had a flashback of when they were freshmen, first trying to figure out their feelings for one another. The look on her face reminded him of how she looked back then; frightened and insecure. He had an urge to reach over the table and take her into his arms. Hardly appropriate when it was about him.

"I wrote it to you sophomore year of high school," she said. There was more to the thought. He could tell by her voice that there was more to it. He wanted to encourage her to tell him more, but he didn't want to push her. Whatever was going to happen had to happen naturally or they would never know if there was anything real, besides friendship, between them. He offered her a small smile, and she quietly added, "when you were sick."

A light bulb went off in Clark's head. Of course. That's why she had gotten so worried. The last time she had seen him sick, he had nearly died. Other than that, Clark had never been sick, and this had to be worrying for her.

Resisting the urge to hold her hand, Clark looked deep into her eyes. "Chloe," he said, almost whispering. "This is not like then. This is nothing." She didn't exactly look assured, so he continued. "Sure, my powers might be going a little wonky, but that seems to happen to me every other week. Other than that, there's not much wrong. Nothing's going happen to me."

He waited for a response from her for almost a minute. She seemed to just be processing.

But when she finally smiled, he knew it was okay. She exhaled, and then said, "I guess I'm just being stupid."

This made him laugh a little.

"What are you laughing at?" she said, laughing a little herself.

"Chloe, _you_ could never be stupid."

Clark's words made her feel better. They always did. And as usual, Chloe was grateful for it. It seemed like she was forever worrying, and Clark being there for her made life easier.

After making sure she was alright, his attention returned to the letter. " _In fact, my disguise is so thin, I'm surprised you haven't seen right through_ ," he read aloud.

She almost wished she hadn't shown him the letter. Chloe was so young when she had written it, and now she almost felt embarrassed it. At least Clark had been asleep the first time she told him all of this. Now, he was wide awake, registering all of it. What was worse was that his emotions were impossible to read. At least when he had murmured Lana's name in his sleep, Chloe knew where she had stood in Clark's mind. This time, she didn't have that. The fact was there was a clear possibility Clark may have some kind of feelings for her, but she just didn't know. That was torture.

He read the rest in silence. At times, he almost looked as though the words were hurting him, and Chloe didn't know how exactly to feel about that.

Chloe kept her lips pressed tight as he finished and looked up at her. "Chloe," he said softly. "I had no idea your feelings were this strong. I'm so sorry I..." he trailed off.

"Clark, I wrote that forever ago," she said.

Clark looked into her eyes. "But still," he said. "It must've killed you seeing me with Lana, when you were secretly waiting for me to actually see you."

Chloe breathed deeply. She couldn't believe Clark now actually understood what she had been going through for years. He had nailed it so perfectly on the head, and that kind of scared her.

"You and I both know that you had to pursue your feelings for Lana," she said. "And I mean, let's face it, you still have feelings for her."

Clark's gaze dropped to his shoe. Chloe was convinced that if Clark's powers weren't off due to whatever was going on, there would be a huge hole in his shoe. "That's not where I thought this conversation was going to go," he said.

"Clark," Chloe almost pleaded. "Just tell me. I need to know."

"Yes," he looked up into her eyes. Time for honesty, she could tell. "I mean... I hate it that she's moving in with Lex. I can't stand it."

Chloe wanted to say something, but she feared her voice would give out on her if she tried.

Clark saw she was having difficulty and helped her out. "But then, I don't know, I think of you, and the possibilities, and things just don't feel so bad anymore," he said. Chloe never thought she could hear sweeter words.

"Maybe we could just go into this slowly," he continued. "Go in knowing I'm still working through other feelings, but working to see what feelings I might have for you.

"Chloe, I feel like such an ass for never doing this before. We know each other better than most people, and most of the time we're always together anyways. I've been taking you, and your feelings, for granted, and I don't want to do that anymore.

"I just want to be honest with you about it," he said. "How can we ever know what's real and not if I just pretend I'm over Lana, and we just jump into relationship status? I mean, in your letter you said you thought I was worth the wait. I know you've been waiting a long time, but what do you think? Is it worth it to wait a little longer?"

After Clark's speech, Chloe was almost in tears. Even since knowing Clark's secret, Clark had never been this open and honest with her. It gave her real hope for what might eventually come.

Chloe bit her lip. "Clark Kent, you are and always will be worth the wait."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Chloe and Clark struggle with where they're at with their relationship, Oliver Queen enters the picture. Then, our duo run into Lex and Lana.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I've been told the situation in this chapter is entirely implausible, but I wanted it to happen, so it did.

_After 6x04 - Arrow_

For some reason, the Talon was crowded as Chloe and Clark got their coffees. Having just got off of work, Chloe felt entitled to a rather large dose of caffeine. Besides, between Chloe's work at the Daily Planet and Clark's frequent acts of heroism, this happened to be the only time they could find to meet up together.

They grabbed their coffees and began the desperate search for a table. It soon became clear that they were not going to find one, and Chloe did not want her coffee to get cold before she could drink it.

She turned around and looked at Clark, who was trailing behind her. "Maybe we should take these upstairs," she suggested.

Clark looked at her seriously. "Chloe," he said. "Are you sure?"

"Clark," she pushed. "You've been alone with me in my apartment millions of times."

"I know, but it's different now," he said. He had made it obvious that he wanted to do this right. It was the only chance their relationship stood in the sea of overwhelming odds. But there were some things in the past few weeks he had just been too coy about.

Sure, it would've been sweet and endearing, if they hadn't been friends for seven years. But now things he had done with her hundreds of times were off limits.

Last week, when they had gone to the movies, he had bought them two separate bags of popcorn, so that he wouldn't be constantly reaching into the popcorn on her lap. Earth to Clark, she shouted in her head. You've never given this a second thought before!

There had been tons of incidents like this, and now he didn't even want to drink coffee in her apartment. There was such a thing as too slow. Chloe had thought they would just advance their friendship into something more, but Clark seemed bound and determined to take it all the way back to the beginning and start an entirely new relationship. As if it were even possible for them to forget everything they knew about each other.

All these things that they knew, that they felt, had been built up through years and years of friendship. They had grown completely comfortable with each other, secrets and all, and Chloe simply could not go back to some kind of formal relationship with him.

"Nothing's going to happen," Chloe smiled assuringly. Then, in the tiniest voice, knowing full well Clark had superhearing and could probably hear her, she added, "Unless we want to."

Clark just stood there and smirked. She knew he still had a playful side, she just needed to drag it out of him, albeit kicking and screaming.

She went in for a quick kiss on his cheek before grabbing his hand and leading him up the stairs. He went willingly, but she continued to hold onto his hands anyways. In fact, there was a part of her that never wanted to let go. A rather large part.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Chloe let go of Clark's hand and handed her coffee to him. Then she started to dig in her purse for her keys. Before she could get to them, though, the door opened from the inside and out stepped a beautiful blonde man.

Even with Clark standing right next to her, Chloe couldn't help but stare. This man, with his sexy brown eyes, was obviously nothing shy of perfection.

It took Clark clearing his throat to break her attention. She looked from Clark back to the man again.

"I'm Oliver Queen," he said, extending his hand out for her. She shook it. It was not as nice as Clark's hand, she noted.

"Chloe Sullivan," she said.

**Xx**

Later on, inside, Clark and Chloe sat in the living room of the apartment. Lois was there, too. Not awkward at all, considering they had just ran into her boyfriend heading out from doing who knows what with her.

Clark tried to put it out of his mind, but he knew that Chloe wouldn't. She gave him a look that said, "We've been together longer them and they're already farther ahead of us."

Maybe it was because she was the one that had been waiting for him, but she didn't seem to understand the pressure he was under. If he went too far too soon, he wouldn't know if it was right. She kept telling him that the things he didn't want to do, they had done before when they were strictly defined as "friends." It was different now, though. The casual graze as they passed each other now had context. He didn't want to give her the wrong signals.

It wasn't just that he didn't know exactly where they were going yet, either. If he led Chloe on too soon, and things didn't work out, he knew what was going to happen. Chloe was going to get hurt. And that was about the last thing in the world Clark wanted.

"So that was Oliver," Chloe said to her cousin. There was something to her voice when she said this, just like there was something in her eyes when she first laid eyes on the guy.

Clark knew that he was jealous—he knew because it was the same feeling he had when he thought about Lana and Lex. Truth be told, it kind of scared him. Jealousy was always on Clark's mind whenever Lana would meet someone new, but he'd never really had the emotion for anyone else before. Least of all for his best friend.

"Yep," Lois said, almost giddily. "That was Oliver."

What was this guy? Some kind of superhero? Oh yeah... right...

But he was the only one in the room that knew that Oliver was the Green Arrow. And yet, he had these girls practically falling all over themselves.

Clark suddenly wished he had the power to read minds so that he could see who Chloe thought was more attractive—him, or Oliver.

There was a moment of awkward silence, which Lois noticed, because she excused herself with some lame excuse about having to do some work. Because, apparently, the Inquisitor was very demanding of its employees.

But now that Chloe and Clark were all alone, they would finally get an opportunity to talk.

"So," he said.

"So..." she echoed. Yeah, they were having a great conversation already.

"So," he said again. "It feels like there's been a little bit of friction between us lately. Kind of like we're not exactly on the same page."

Chloe merely bit her lip and nodded.

"I mean, I thought we had it figured out," he continued. "We said we were going to go slow. And for some reason, I thought that was all we needed to know. But obviously it's not." Clark paused, but when it was apparent that Chloe didn't quite know what to say, he continued. "I think we need some common ground about _how_ slow to go."

"Clark," she said. "I think it's great that you want to go slow. Of course we can't just jump into a relationship. But I can't give up everything we've already built up while I wait for this to become more. After everything we've been through..."

"I get that Chloe," he said. "I just don't know what I'm doing here."

Chloe looked a little hurt, so he decided to elaborate. "It was never this way with Lana because I always knew how I felt, but with you... I don't know. It's like I'm starting to develop these feelings, but I'm not sure that I like you as much as you like me."

With this, Chloe looked a little downtrodden.

"This is coming out wrong," he said. "I do like you, Chloe. I just don't want you to get hurt. I need to know... if things... don't work out between us... we're still going to be friends, right? This isn't going to change anything?"

Chloe still looked a little hurt, but she just looked into his eyes and said. "Of course. Nothing will ever destroy our friendship."

**Xx**

_After 6x07 - Rage_

She didn't like keeping secrets from him, but this was Lana's secret. He just kept walking, pushing the cart, obliviously.

She wanted to tell him. But she couldn't.

Chloe and Clark were at the grocery store filling the cart with all the junk food they could afford. It was going to rain the next day and they were going to stay in at Clark's house and have a movie marathon.

Chloe was actually really excited about this. Things were finally becoming comfortable again between the two of them. It had seemed like that was never going to happen when Clark was being evasive, but after they cleared the air, and Chloe had assured him their friendship would remain intact, things started returning to normal.

And now that they were back to normal, they could maybe start exploring the something more part of their relationship.

Except for the fact that Chloe was keeping a secret from Clark. It was killing her. Before she had found out his secret, she had hated being in the dark. Now she was the one keeping him in the dark. Sure, it wasn't her secret to tell, but it still felt like a betrayal.

Just as she was reaching for a bag of bugles, she thought she saw a familiar face coming down the aisle.

Shit, it was Lana.

Clark didn't seem to notice, as he was too busy looking at the nutrition facts on some bag. What did he care? He could eat as unhealthily as he wanted and didn't have to worry about the consequences. What Chloe wouldn't do to be able to do the same.

As Lana noticed them, she shouted down the aisle, "Hi!"

Clark looked up, and looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Sure, Clark and Lana had talked since things had started, but somehow the three of them had never been in the same room together since then. And quite frankly, Chloe wasn't sure if he was acting this way because he didn't want Lana to see him with Chloe, or he didn't want Chloe to see he might still have feelings for Lana.

This look, however, soon turned into a different look. One that Chloe couldn't quite peg.

Just as Lana was almost reaching them, all hell broke loose.

"Lana, I said no junk food," Lex practically yelled as he came barreling down the aisle. Chloe knew that he was only trying to look out for her during her pregnancy. And if she didn't know what she did about Lex, she might've thought he was chivalrous.

Then she remembered that Clark didn't know about the pregnancy and figured this must look absolutely crazy to Clark. She tried to signal to Lana with her eyes, and the way Lana looked at her, she knew she got the message.

"Lex, I can eat whatever I want," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. She grabbed a bag of chips and put it into the cart Lex was pushing around.

Lex, too, figured out what Chloe and Lana were trying to do, judging by the way he looked from Lana to Clark. "Whatever," he said, obviously fighting back a smile.

"Nice to see you two again," he said, obviously amused as he started to walk away.

"You, too," Clark said, just sounding confused.

"Bye guys!" Lana waved as she quickly followed behind Lex.

**Xx**

Clark couldn't figure out what was going on with Lana and Lex, but within the past couple of minutes he had figured out something much more important.

When he had first seen Lana, his initial reaction was panic. Having Chloe and Lana together, Clark had just known he was going to screw something up somewhere, because of his feelings for both girls.

But when he saw Lana, when he took her in, something felt different. Of course he still had feelings for her. These things didn't just go away right away. But they felt less.

Wondering if his feelings would have changed like this had he not decided to go for Chloe, he got the feeling that he would have been spending all his time moping over Lana had it not been for whatever this was with Chloe.

And, for the first time, he knew he had made the right choice. He knew that the direction Chloe and Clark were heading was the right one.

As Lana and Lex disappeared, Clark turned to Chloe.

"You got everything you want?" he asked.

"I think so," she said. "No promises, though."

He laughed a little and put his arm around her as he turned to walk towards the cash register.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas can only mean good things... and presents.

Sitting in his living room with his mom and Chloe felt amazing, but Clark could feel that something was missing. He looked up at the mantle at the picture of his dad. The first Christmas without him. But somehow he found himself smiling and laughing. He hated himself for it.

His mom came up behind him and put a loving hand on his shoulder. "I wish he was here, too," she said, somewhat sadly. "But he'd want you to enjoy yourself today." He turned around to look at her. "I know you have something special planned for Chloe and, Clark, you deserve to be happy."

He smiled, knowing every word his mom said was the truth. How was she always so wise?

Clark reached into his pocket and felt the small ring box that contained Chloe's Christmas present. A wave of excitement washed over him as he pondered exactly how we was going to pop the question.

He walked over to Chloe who was sitting by the fireplace, trying to keep warm. "Hey Chloe," he said smiling.

Chloe laughed a little as she looked up at him. "Hey Clark," she said, obviously mocking him.

"Are you having a good time?" he said.

"More than you know," she said, looking into his eyes. "Every Christmas, there's always some kind of fighting. Lois and the General, Lucy and the General, Lois and Lucy..."

"Wow," Clark said. "Poor Chloe and Gabe."

"Yeah, well, my dad and I are going out for dinner tomorrow," she said, smiling the whole time. "Lane free."

Clark laughed. Yes, the Lanes really could be a handful. Clark knew this firsthand, from his everyday encounters with Lois, and the more obscure encounters with Lucy and their dad. They all had such strong personalities that, when put together, were explosive. But they were a family, which was more than some people had.

"So thank you for giving me a perfect Christmas," Chloe said. "You and your mom are great. I mean, I know it must be hard for you guys with out your dad, but you still invite me over for an intimate family holiday. It means a lot to me."

"It's not always easy without my dad," he said, looking at the ground. He lifted his gaze to Chloe. "But, no matter how hard it is, I can't be a shell forever. Last year was the worst year of my life. I lost my dad and Lana, and it felt like I would never be happy again. But then you kissed me... and for once it felt like everything was going to turn out okay."

Clark had to force the tears not to come out. He had not foreseen this conversation getting so serious, but in a way, he was glad it did, because it was the perfect segue into what he'd been planning.

"So," he said. "Time for presents?"

**Xx**

Chloe noticed that Clark seemed awfully excited about the presents. She didn't really understand, because they had placed a $20 limit on presents.

"Why not?" Chloe shrugged.

With that Clark looked at his mom. It looked like he was trying to send her a signal.

"I'm just going to go check on the ham," Martha said, excusing herself. _The plot thickens_ , Chloe thought. In a way, it amused her, but she wouldn't be satisfied until she knew what was going on.

"What was that about?" Chloe wanted some answers, and she wanted them now.

"Nothing," Clark lied. Chloe found it funny that once someone found out Clark's secret, he turned into the worst liar around them.

She rolled her eyes. _Whatever,_ she thought. It wouldn't kill her to give Clark a victory just this once.

"You first," he said.

"Fine," she said, handing him the gift bag.

He dug through the tissue paper, and pulled out the little stuffed alien she had bought him.

He stared at the green toy with the enlarged head, with a blank face. Chloe just started laughing.

"He's your twin," she said through her laughter. He took the toy and threw it at her, obviously consciously not using his powers, or it might've actually hurt.

"Come on," she said, picking up the alien and turning it towards him. "You know you love him."

His face broke into a smile. "I do," he said. Then the smile disappeared, but he still looked playful. "Except for the fact that it's blatantly offensive."

Chloe laughed again.

"Now it's your turn," she said, once she had calmed down. She was excited to see what Clark had in store for her.

"Close your eyes," Clark said.

"No," she said, playfully. He was going to trick her somehow, she just knew it.

"Do it," he said again, more forcefully, but maintaining his joking tone.

"Fine," she said, closing her eyes. _This better be worth it_ , she thought.

She could barely hear him doing anything, so either he was using his superspeed, or he was just being very quiet.

"Okay," he said. "Open them."

When she opened his eyes, Clark was on one knee, and holding out a ring box.

Chloe almost laughed, but Clark had a dead serious look on his face. No, this wasn't happening. Clark was on some kind of kryptonite or something.

He opened the box. She took in the hands that formed a heart, around an actual heart in the center. Her first thought that it was the ring Angel had given to Buffy. It was actually really sweet that Clark paid actually paid attention when she was watching t.v.

But then, another thought came over her. _Isn't this a wedding ring in Ireland?_ she asked herself.

A wave of panic washed over her.

 _It's okay_ , she tried to tell herself. _We'll figure out what kind of kryptonite poisoning this is, and we'll fix it_. She just didn't know what she was going to do in this moment.

"Clark-" she started, but he didn't let her finish.

"Chloe Sullivan," he said, looking from the ring to her face. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Clark..." she said again, before registering what he had actually said. She sighed heavily and then broke out into fits of laughter.

The laughter became hysterical, and she didn't know how it had happened, but she found herself on the floor. Clark, still kneeling, was above her, still holding the ring out.

"So, what do you say?" he said with a smile on his face.

"Yes!" she said, throwing her arms around him.

He pulled her into a deep kiss, and when they pulled away, he slid the ring onto her finger, with the heart pointed towards her.

She hugged him, and when she looked up toward the kitchen, Martha was standing there watching with a huge smile on her face.

 _Best Christmas ever_ , Chloe thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really couldn't help myself when I was writing this.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe is with Clark. And Lois is with Oliver. So why is Chloe all of a sudden worried about Clark and Lois, of all people?

_6x10 – Hydro_

Chloe turned the ring over and over on her finger as she soaked in the happiness she thought she would never feel. It made her feel like dancing on the inside at the mere thought of Clark being her _boyfriend_!

She had been trying to get some work done on her story about Linda Lake who had tried to reveal Clark’s secret to the world and kill her. Luckily, thanks to Lana, Chloe, and Clark’s secret, were safe. The events of the day served to make her even happier and more relieved at their new relationship status whenever the ring caught her eye.

Since Clark had popped the question, so to speak, their relationship had sped up quite a bit. Before, Clark had been acting unsure about every move, every touch. It had been annoying and frustrating as he treated their relationship like a fragile china doll. But now things were different. Clark seemed completely comfortable when he slipped his hand into hers or brushed a stray hair from her face, or even when he stole a kiss here and there. One particular night, as the passion between them arose and their kisses heated up, Lois, being Chloe’s roommate, ended up walking in on them. Clark blushed a little, which was completely understandable, but more notably he didn’t react further than that. The old Clark probably would’ve run out of the room in shame, or whatever it was that was keeping him from acting on his feelings for her, but since Christmas, it was like something clicked inside of him.

It was like a light bulb had gone off and his head and he finally realized that she, in a sense, belonged to him. The truth was ever since their freshman year of high school, Chloe would have always done anything Clark wanted. In a way, even when he belonged to Alicia or Lana, she had always belonged to him. There’d never been anyone else, with the exception of a tiny fling one summer, but considering the lack of feelings they shared, that didn’t really count.

It wasn’t even a minute after she had finally decided to return her attention to the story she was working on, when a very chipper Lois opened the door to their apartment. Chloe wondered if it was Oliver making her feel the way Clark was making Chloe feel. She smiled at the thought.

“You’d never believe the day I’ve just had,” Lois said, excited about whatever had happened.

“And it sounds like nothing is going to stop you from telling me about it,” Chloe said, still smiling herself. Ever since Lois had decided she wanted to be a reporter, too, she never could let a good story go to waste. And because Chloe was Lois’s cousin, roommate, and best friend, along with the fact that Chloe was also a reporter, she was the perfect candidate to listen to all of Lois’s insane musings. Sometimes they were amusing, and others they sounded like they fit the newspaper she worked for perfectly.

“Ok,” Lois jumped straight into her story without pause. This made Chloe laugh. “Well, I’ve been scouring the internet for any hints on the mysterious Green Arrow, and I actually found a source that showed some potential. So I meet this guy, Jimmy. He’s a photographer at the Planet, and it turns out he was able to snap a couple of shots of our favorite Robin Hood.”

Chloe wondered where this story was going. If she had really found out who the man behind the Green Arrow was, would she be sitting here telling Chloe about it? Then again, everybody else turned to Chloe as secret-keeper extraordinaire, why not Lois?

“Well, later, Oliver was trying to teach me yoga,” Lois continued, but Chloe didn’t let her get any farther than that.

“Wait,” she interrupted. “What on earth does Oliver and yoga have to do with your investigation of the Green Arrow?”

“Just wait,” Lois sounded annoyed that Chloe wouldn’t just let Lois tell the complete story uninterrupted. “So, things kind of got a little hot, and we started to make out. But then I noticed this gash on his arm. It was the same gash from the pictures of Green Arrow that Jimmy gave me.”

Was she really about to tell Chloe that her boyfriend had a secret identity? The only reason she could think Lois would do that would be if Lois were mad at him for hiding this secret from her. But then why would Lois be in such a singsong mood as she told the story? There was no way Chloe could just skip in and let Lois in on Clark’s complete history. She decided the best thing to do would just keep quiet and let Lois finish the story, hoping all these questions would be answered before she had to ask. Yes, that would definitely be better.

“Well, I was trying to think of who to ask for help trying to figure out,” Lois continued. “I could use Jimmy, but he didn’t seem like he would be capable of helping on his own, and I needed another body to help me. And, when I thought about it, it appeared so clearly to me: _Clark_!”

“Clark?” Chloe’s mind nearly exploded. It was a bit soon for Chloe to be feeling jealous, but why had Clark seemed like a good idea?

“Think about it,” she said. “Clark and Oliver are friends. If anyone could get close enough to Oliver to find out if he had any dirty secrets, it would be me and Clark… I mean, Clark and me.”

Initially proud that Lois had finally come to a point in her career where she was correcting her own grammar, Chloe eventually turned to a bigger problem. She could see the logic in Lois’s thought process, but it contained an error Lois had not seen; Clark knew whom the Green Arrow was and was determined to keep it a secret. If the mystery man were Oliver, Clark would’ve helped him keep his secret from a prying Lois.

“It took some convincing, but Clark agreed to help me and we came up with a plan. The three of us would have a movie night and I would conveniently forget the ice. While walking home in a dark, scary alley, Jimmy would pretend to be a thug and I would call Oliver for ‘help.’

“But then, everything went horribly wrong. It wasn’t just Jimmy approaching me in the alley. There were more men who were actually scary and intimidating.”

Lois sighed and then smiled a little more than she already was. “That was when he came. I’ve seen him in person before, but there was just something about the way he filled his costume that was just¾unf!”

Chloe raised an eyebrow. She was almost certain at this point it was not Oliver in the costume.

“Get this, Chloe,” she said. “Our Green Arrow’s been seriously holding back on us. He threw the thugs across the alley like it was nothing!”

A wave of realization washed over Chloe. It had to be Oliver that Clark was protecting, and he must’ve agreed to wear the costume to thoroughly convince Lois she wasn’t dating a superhero. As much as Chloe admired Clark’s loyalty, a part of her wished she had known about what was going on. What if Lois had pulled off his glasses and found out about Clark’s powers? Chloe froze. What if that was what Lois going to tell her? No. Clark would have called her. She was sure about that.

“So, thinking it was my boyfriend throwing these men like balls of paper, I kissed him,” Chloe felt all the blood leave her face. She knew she shouldn’t be jealous. Lois thought it was Oliver. Clark probably wanted nothing to do with it. “But then Oliver walked up behind me. Not knowing what else to do, I slapped the Green Arrow to try and make it look like he came onto me.”

Chloe scoffed a little at this, but she tried to play it off as a laugh as her nerves threatened to take over completely. But at least that was it. She had kissed Chloe’s boyfriend briefly¾by mistake¾and then she stopped when she realized it wasn’t Ollie. Chloe could deal with that, that was, until Lois continued.

“And I’m not saying that anything’s going to happen between Oliver and me because of it, but Chloe, that was the most amazing kiss of my entire life. Ollie’s a great kisser, but damn, they must have some great kissing classes at superhero school.”

Chloe couldn’t think of anything to say. She felt her mouth open a little, and for a moment, that Lois picked up on, she was powerless to regain her composure.

“Are you okay?” It was Lois’s turn to raise her eyebrow as she noticed Chloe’s change in attitude.

“Yeah, um, I’m fine,” she said, trying to keep her body from trembling with the million emotions she was pretty sure she couldn’t even name. “But do you think I could talk with Clark about this alone?”

“Yeah,” Lois said, even more confused. “Are you mad at him for not telling you about helping me? Because I told him not to…”

“No, it’s not that,” Chloe said simply. She wasn’t about to elaborate.

“Oh,” Lois said deciding to leave it alone. “It’s not like Clark was of much use anyway¾he totally vanished in the middle of the night.”

With that, Lois was off to the bathroom to take a shower, like she always did when she needed some time to think.

Chloe picked up her cell phone from the coffee table and dialed speed dial number 2. “Clark, we need to talk,” Chloe said, keeping a single tear from escaping her eye by sheer force. No. She would talk to Clark before she let her emotions get the better of her.

**Xx**

Clark waited in his barn. Chloe had sounded kind of weird on the phone, and she had told him that she would come to him instead of the other way around. Clark felt like he was about to get into trouble and there was nothing he could do to prevent it. He inhaled sharply as he heard the sound of her car pull into the driveway.

He waited as patiently as he could as his super-hearing picked up on the closing of her door and then her footsteps coming towards the barn. When she entered the barn, he noticed that she was breathing the way she did when she was stressed.

He sped down the stairs and stopped at the bottom, looking into her eyes. Seeing the stress apparent on her face that he had heard in her breathing, Clark took her hand and planted a small, gentle kiss on her cheek. Chloe offered him a small smile and Clark noticed that this was probably the most she could give him. This worried Clark, and he hated seeing Chloe unhappy.

“Let’s go upstairs,” she said, obviously making an effort to not let her voice betray her. Clark wondered if Chloe knew how well Clark actually knew Chloe and that he could always tell when she was upset about something. Chloe was definitely upset right now.

He didn’t let go of her hand as he led her up the stairs of the barn. Somehow just being upstairs gave more of an illusion of privacy than the open downstairs where they could easily be eavesdropped on.

“First of all,” Chloe started. “I know about Oliver.”

Clark laughed nervously. “W-what do you mean?”

“Clark,” she looked into his eyes. “You know exactly what I mean. And you also know I can keep a secret.”

Clark nodded. If he trusted anyone with the important secrets, it was Chloe. She had never let him down, even when they hadn’t been a couple. But this was not what she had come to talk about, and they both knew it.

Chloe looked down at the wooden floor of the loft and then back up into Clark’s eyes. “Lois told me about the kiss.”

Clark closed his eyes. So _that’s_ what this about. He guessed he couldn’t blame Chloe for having these feelings¾he should’ve told her himself. But he couldn’t figure out what to say. The truth was, a small part of him couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss.

“Chloe,” he said, trying to sound reassuring. “That kiss was nothing. It was all Lois, and she thought I was Ollie.”

Chloe sighed. “Yeah, but the way she said it… it seemed like it was a little more two-sided than it should’ve been.”

Clark could see why she was stressing now and he wanted nothing more than to calm Chloe’s nerves and see her gorgeous smile again.

“Damn,” he said, letting himself uncharacteristically slip. He ran his fingers through his hair. “Chloe, the kiss was nice, I guess, but you’re the one I’m with-the one I want to be with. That hasn’t changed.”

It was the truth, so why did he feel so guilty?

After a couple of seconds of quiet pondering, Chloe finally smiled. She reached up on her tiptoes and planted a deep, emotional kiss on Clark’s lips that made him forget all about Lois.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Clark are acting kind of... weird.

_6x13 – Crimson, Part 1/3_

Clark smiled contently as he sat on Chloe’s couch waiting for her to finish getting ready. What was it about girls that took them so long to get ready every time? Chloe had told him that she’d ended up having to work late, but Clark had already been here for at least twenty minutes and Chloe still wasn’t ready to go.

He sighed as the door to the apartment opened and Lois walked in with a smile on her face. Given her recent breakup and the fact that it was Valentine’s Day, this smile confused Clark, but he wasn’t about to complain. If all his friends could just be happy all the time, everything would be great.

“So, you and Chloe are going out tonight?” she asked expectantly as she walked over to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

“Well, not so much out as downstairs,” he said, shifting somewhat uncomfortably on the couch. “There’s that Valentine’s party thing that we’re going to.”

“Oh,” Lois said taking a sip of her water and then placing it back on the counter. His eyes traced her lips for moment as he remembered the kiss in the alley. He shook his head to get his mind off of it. He was with Chloe and he really didn’t want to mess that up. “But you won’t be in the apartment?”

“Right,” he said.

**Xx**

Chloe looked in the mirror at her dress. She knew she was making Clark wait, but she wanted to look good for him for Valentine’s Day, and she wasn’t sure if this dress was what she wanted him to see. She didn’t have much of choice, though, as she didn’t really have another dress. Chloe had never had a boyfriend before and when she got with Clark the fact that she was going to be expected to dress up for him had completely escaped her mind.

She took a deep breath deciding that she would just have to deal with it. She was about to leave the room when she heard the apartment door open. Lois. It had been awhile since the kiss, but Chloe couldn’t help but to have some emotion whenever they were alone together. She put her ear to the wall listening to their muffled voices. She couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but the conversation seemed innocent enough. Chloe was just being stupid.

She jumped when her cell phone rang, pulling her mind away from Lois and Clark. The caller ID told her it was Lana, and new worries sprang to her mind. She probably wanted a headcount for her engagement dinner, and Chloe didn’t know what to tell her.

“Hi, Lana,” she answered the phone.

“Hi,” Lana said into her phone. “So, Lois called and said she’s bringing a date. Did she and Oliver get back together?”

Chloe was taken aback. Lois? A date?

“No, Oliver’s still out of town on business,” Chloe said, a hint of confusion in her voice. Who could Lois be seeing only a couple weeks after breaking up with Oliver? The mystery consumed her as she glanced to the mirror once again.

“Oh,” Lana said, also sounding confused. “So, I really need to know if Clark’s coming or not.”

“I know,” Chloe sighed. “I asked him, but he’s avoiding answering.”

Lana sighed heavily through the phone. “You know, I thought things would get better when you two got together.”

Great. Yeah, that was exactly what she needed. She had just started to calm down over a little nothing between Clark and Lois, and now Lana was sitting there insinuating that Clark wasn’t over her yet. Lana was lucky she was on the other side of the phone, because Chloe had a sudden urge to strangle someone.

“I know,” Chloe said again, trying not to sound disheartened by what Lana said. “I think even with me in his life, he’s never going to get used to the idea of you and Lex. Clark doesn’t trust, and he’s always going to care about you, even if it’s not in the same way he used to.”

“Oh, okay,” Lana said. “Well let me know as soon as you get an answer.”

“I will.”

And with that the conversation was over. What was it with the girls in this town? Why did they all they seem to want Chloe’s boyfriend? She told herself that she was just imagining it, and what she’d said to Lana had been the truth, but she wasn’t sure how much she believed it. Clark had been in love with Lana for a long time; was a relationship with Chloe really going to overpower all of that?

Chloe bit her lip as she glanced in the mirror one last time before leaving the room.

“Good,” she heard Lois say.

“What’s good?” Chloe asked, making her way down the hallway and to the living room.

When she caught Clark’s eye, he stood from the couch and just stared at her. “That dress,” he said, and when he didn’t close his mouth right away, she smiled and then twirled around showing off the entire dress.

It seemed as though Chloe’s worry had been in vain. Clark really liked the dress, and tonight was going to be perfect. She wouldn’t think about Lois or Lana. All of her attention would be on having the best Valentine’s Day ever with her perfect boyfriend. Clark started to smile, too, and Chloe walked up to him, and kissed him. The kiss lasted a little longer than she had expected it to, but it felt so good as Clark’s arms wrapped around her. It almost felt like when she had kissed him before Zod took over Lex’s body and sent him to the phantom zone.

“Get a room,” Lois said, sounding annoyed.

Chloe pulled away from Clark and then just stared into his eyes. And it was as if they were the only two people in the world.

They left the room and as soon as the door was shut and Lois couldn’t see them, they started to kiss again. “Guess we should go downstairs,” Chloe said out of breath.

“Guess so,” Clark agreed.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs Chloe thought she saw a familiar face. No, it couldn’t be. But she was distracted as Clark took her hand and pulled her into the crowd.

“Have you noticed Lois acting weird lately?” Clark asked. Of course he would bring up Lois when all she wanted to think was him. Of course.

“Um, why?” was all she could muster up to say.

“Well, I don’t know,” he said. “She was acting awfully chipper for someone that just broke up with her boyfriend. And it kind of seemed like she wanted to make sure she had the apartment to herself tonight.”

The mystery deepened. “Well Lana said she has a date for the engagement dinner,” she offered.

At the mention of the dinner, Clark’s eyes dropped to the ground. It wasn’t supposed to be a segue into asking him if he was going, but Clark seemed to take it as one.

“Chloe,” he said tenderly, as if he was trying to soften the blow that was about to come. “I just don’t know. Seeing Lex… and… I, it’s hard.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. He was jealous of Lex. Of course he was. After all, Lex had a beautiful girl with whom he wanted to share everything. Clark didn’t have anything like that.

“I’m sorry,” he sighed.

“Just give me a minute,” she said, turning around. She didn’t want to look at those eyes. They would try to make her feel better, and she didn’t want to feel better. She wanted Clark to acknowledge his feelings. At least just get it out there. It would hurt, but at least Chloe would know.

Chloe walked towards a decorative table where a very eccentric woman tried to sell her goods.

“Men troubles?” the woman had witnessed her conversation with Clark.

“No,” she shook her head. “Just not having the greatest day.”

“I know just the remedy,” the woman offered a warm smile. She picked up a crimson shade of lipstick and offered it to Chloe.

“Lipstick? Really?” Chloe asked skeptically.

“Trust me.”

**Xx**

Clark had really done it this time. With Lana, he always ended up getting into arguments about his secrets. Now with Chloe, he felt like she constantly doubted his sincerity. He wanted so badly to look Chloe in the eye and tell her that she was on the only one on her mind, but he didn’t know if he could do it honestly. Sure, he was over Lana to an extent¾he did want Chloe more than he wanted Lana¾but a part of him would never be able to stomach Lex making her happy. And then there was Lois. There was absolutely nothing between him and Lois, but at the same time, he had given into her kiss when she thought he was Oliver and he found himself wanting to do it again.

His feelings tore him in about a million different directions, but he decided his main concern was to keep his girlfriend happy. Chloe had done so much over the years to make sure he was happy, and the least he could do was return the favor now. It made him happy to think that he hadn’t been too late in realizing these feelings for her. But even that wouldn’t matter if they let everything else stand in between them. Clark decided that after the party tonight he would talk to her; he would come clean about all of his feelings and hopefully everything would turn out all right. He needed it to.

Clark picked up a chocolate off of one of the tables and stuck it in his mouth. Just as he turned around, he spotted Chloe coming at him, smiling like an idiot. He wondered what had happened in the past couple of minutes to change her mood so drastically. Whatever it was, he couldn’t help but mirror her smile at she finally reached him and took his hand.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said, pulling him towards the door.

Obviously she couldn’t have pulled him against his will and it really wasn’t. He was a bit confused, but wherever Chloe was going, Clark wanted to follow her. That, and the glow of playfulness that gleamed in her eyes intrigued him. He got a little excited as she picked up the pace towards the door and he followed suit.

He could barely even remember Lois or Lana’s names as he wracked his brain trying to figure out what had gotten into Chloe. He wanted to ask her about it, but the mystery made him feel happy for some reason.

“Chloe, what’s going on?” he asked.

“Well, I wanted to get away from the crowd,” she said as though it were obvious. She smiled as her gaze lingered on his somewhat confused eyes. “I would’ve taken you upstairs, but who knows what Lois is doing up their with her mystery man. I wanted you alone. Just you. And me.”

“I just assumed you were angry about before,” Clark said. How had she gotten over that so fast? It definitely wasn’t Chloe.

“Not angry,” she said, still smiling. “Talk in the truck?” She gestured with her head to where his truck was parked.

They walked in silence to the truck and every time he looked over at her she was smiling like crazy. It wasn’t that he didn’t love it; he just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

They got inside of the truck and before Clark had a chance to say anything, it was Chloe who spoke. “I was wrong,” she said.

“What?” Clark said more confused than ever.

“You were right,” she said slowly. “I was wrong. Isn’t that what you wanna hear, babe?”

Clark felt as though his mind was going to explode. First of all, Chloe was just not acting like herself. There was no way she’d admit to being wrong, especially when even Clark knew she hadn’t been. She was telling him what she thought he wanted to hear. But why? It didn’t make sense. And ‘babe’? When had they started using pet names? Had Clark missed this milestone in their relationship?

“Well, I _–_ ” he started to say, but this time it was her body language that distracted him. The way she was looking at him¾staring at him, really¾like she wanted nothing more than to rip off his clothes and take off his clothes right there. And if he’d been anyone else than himself, he probably would’ve given in right then and there. But he couldn’t. He didn’t want to hurt, or possibly kill, his girlfriend because they wanted to have a little fun. No, that was definitely not in the plans for tonight.

“I want you,” she said, still staring.

“Chloe, you know why we can’t,” he pushed. He’d thought this part would be easier with Chloe than it was with Lana because she knew his secret, and even his fear about what he might do, but whatever was going on right now was making it even more difficult. He needed to find out what was happening right now.

“Let me rephrase this,” she tried again. She lifted a hand and ran a finger down his face and let it land on his shoulder rather seductively. “I need you. Now. I don’t care if it kills me. I need you inside of me.”

Clark was genuinely shocked at what he was hearing Chloe say. He tried to open his mouth to say something, but Chloe leaned forward and grabbed the collar of his shirt. She pulled him close to her body and gave him the most passionate kiss he had ever felt.

He didn’t know why, but the kiss triggered something inside of him, and he had an epiphany. With all of his powers he had needed to practice to gain complete control of them. Maybe he just needed a little practice in the art of lovemaking to be able to keep from hurting people.

In this moment, Chloe looked sexier than Clark could ever remember seeing her. He laughed as he decided to give into his need to be with Chloe.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe and Clark wreak havoc. Lois's secret is exposed.

_6x13 - Crimson, Part 2/3_

Things were heating up in his truck, when Clark suddenly had an idea.

He pulled away from Chloe thinking the idea would make her as happy as it made him. She looked frustrated as he just stared down at her, but it would be worth it.

“Call Lana,” he told her forcefully.

“What?” Chloe looked baffled. “I mean, I guess if that’s what you want, but…” She trailed off, as she looked unsure into his eyes.

“Chloe, just trust me,” he assured her. As he stared into her eyes, he did see trust. There was also a hint of something else, but he was not sure what it was. He had never seen Chloe look at him this way, and for some reason he knew at this moment she would do anything for him. That would make things very interesting.

“Of course,” she said, shaking her head as if she didn’t know what she was worried about in the first place. A smile crept across her face as she started dialing Lana’s number.

“I want you to let her know I’m coming to the party,” he said.

As if on queue, Chloe hit the ‘end’ button and her eyes darted again to Clark’s. “What?” she said, again.

“Well, you have to go to the party,” he started. “And I’m not going to let you go alone.” That was, of course, not why he wanted to go at all, but if everything went right both he and Chloe would remain happy.

The next thing he knew, Chloe’s hand was stroking his cheek tenderly as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “I could just stay in with you, you know. I mean, your mom’s going to the dinner.” He got the hint, and he appreciated it. Boy, did he appreciate it. But there was time for that soon enough. After the dinner, no one would be able to keep his hands off Chloe.

“But you’re the _maid of honor_ ,” he said, pushing the point. “And I’m your _boyfriend_. And I just want to make you happy.”

With that, Chloe squealed. Chloe Sullivan squealed. The last time he had actually heard her squeal was when she convinced him to deliver the Toys For Tots presents. Looking back on it, he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how he’d let her talk him into it. It was the lamest thing ever. But Chloe had squealed then, just like she squealed now. And Clark wasn’t complaining. He didn’t know who slipped what into Chloe’s drink, but he was fully enjoying the more bubbly side of Chloe Sullivan.

She looked back down at her phone and dialed Lana’s number with glee radiating out of her every pore.

**Xx**

Chloe was extremely excited as she led Clark up the stairs to her apartment above the Talon. She didn’t know how she had ever been so lucky to land with a guy like Clark. Everything about him was absolutely perfect in every way. Every day since she had met Clark had been an adventure, and now, actively seeking out the adventure with him, Chloe was on the verge of falling madly and deeply in love with the farm boy from another planet. Chloe struggled to remember why she had been mad at him only a couple hours before. Sure, there were those things with Lois and Lana, but if she couldn’t trust Clark, whom could she trust? And the way Clark had been looking at her in the truck, she could tell that he really wanted her. If this was Clark’s version of foreplay, Chloe couldn’t really complain.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Clark stopped her and stepped in front of her before she could reach for the doorknob. “Let me go first,” he whispered.

“Why?”

“Because it’s safer,” he replied, but all of the seriousness that had ever been in his tone was gone. Chloe laughed at how ridiculous this notion sounded, but at this point, she was willing to do anything he said. This thought sent a flutter to her heart. She had never felt like this about anyone before. She was _Chloe Sullivan_ ,  destined to be a big-time reporter, not dependent on some guy. Then again, Clark Kent was hardly just any guy. He was a hero, her best friend, her entire world.

Clark started to open the door, and the excitement started to build up within her until she realized Clark was blocking her view. He wanted to play first. Chloe just sighed.

“Oh, it’s _you_ ,” she heard him say. He laughed a little, and then continued, “That’s a bit anticlimactic, isn’t it?” These words made Chloe even more curious about the identity of the mystery man. The only name her mind could even come up with was Oliver Queen, but it didn’t make any sense why Lois would be hiding him if he were back. That, and Oliver wasn’t about to take a break from saving the world to return to a relationship built on deceit.

“Kent?” came the confused the voice, but Chloe recognized the voice. It wasn’t Ollie, but… damn, where had Chloe heard that voice before?

“Whatever,” Clark said, as he walked into the apartment, finally clearing her view.

Chloe froze in her spot and felt the blood drain out of her face. She had seen him earlier in the Talon, but she thought it was her mind playing tricks on her. What on Earth was he doing here? By the look on his face as he saw her, he had a similar reaction.

“Chloe?” he practically shrieked.

She wanted to try and maintain her composure, though, because she wasn’t quite sure how Clark would react. “Jimmy Olsen,” she said as calmly as she could.

“So you two know each other?” Clark said, his eyes moving from him to her.

“Yeah, uh, we… we kind of…” Jimmy stammered before stopping. She could see him blush, and then she heard Clark’s knowing laugh, which triggered her own blush.

“That’s cute,” he said, simply. “Now _that_ I can see, but you and _Lois_?”

Chloe finally brought her gaze to her cousin who had been standing there in silent confusion the entire time, but now she just looked pissed. Clark seemed to know what he was doing, though, so Chloe didn’t see the need to intervene. Besides, she wanted to see how this was all going to play out.

“I mean, look at her,” he said, and all eyes were on Lois. “You are so out of your league.” It hit Chloe that only moments ago Clark had said that he could picture Jimmy with Chloe, but Lois was somehow above him, as if Lois were also above Chloe. Then, she just noticed that Clark was staring at Lois’s lips as if he was going to ravage them. A shot of betrayal ran through her as she realized he probably had never stopped thinking about _that_ kiss.

Then Clark turned to Chloe. “But then Chloe doesn’t make me want to kill myself.”

Chloe knew now that Clark was intentionally baiting Lois and it served to lessen her own pain somewhat. Clark got the reaction he was looking for as Lois stepped forward and slapped him across the face. Had he been human, the slap probably would’ve hurt like hell, but Clark being invulnerable he didn’t even flinch. Instead, he chuckled.

“Who the hell are you to judge my taste in men, Smallville?” Lois shouted. This just made Clark laugh more. It was genius, really. If Clark didn’t let words affect him, he could get away with anything. Nothing could touch him physically, so he didn’t have to worry about that. In this new light Chloe saw him in, he was even hotter than he was before, if that was even possible.

“Come on, Chloe,” he said through his laughter. “We’ve got to get something to wear to the dinner.”

**Xx**

After Chloe and Clark had left, Jimmy and Lois were left standing in the now tiny apartment. “Well that was… interesting,” Jimmy said after moments of silence.

“That’s one word to describe it,” Lois said.

“I mean, I met Clark when we were investigating the Green Arrow, and I mean… he seemed decent. Actually, he just seemed plain nice.”

“And he usually is,” Lois sighed. “Too nice for his own good. Something’s going on, though. If Clark’s behavior didn’t give it away, I know something’s up with Chloe. I mean, you’ve obviously met her.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I thought that time had changed her or something, but there is no way in hell the Chloe Sullivan I knew would’ve have just stood there through that.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Lois said, as she looked up into Jimmy’s eyes. He just smiled in response, and then she said, “I was trying to keep you a secret, though.” With these words, Jimmy’s heart sunk as Clark’s words rang in his head. Was he right?

That didn’t matter right now, though. They needed to figure out what was going on with Chloe and Clark, and even if their investigation into the Green Arrow had been way off base (Lois’s fault, of course) and had gone wrong, they did make a pretty good team.

**Xx**

As they approached the mansion, Chloe got her invitation ready. Clark had wanted to break in using his handy dandy superpowers, but they had worked so hard to come up with an ingenious plan, and that would have put a huge damper in things. Instead, they walked in like the invited guests they were.

They were practically attacked the moment they walked into the mansion. “The maid of honor is here!!!” a very chipper Lana called out as she ran up to Chloe and hugged her. Pulling away from Chloe, Lana met eyes with Clark and offered him a warm smile. “I’m glad that you could make it.”

“As am I,” Lex said as he walked up behind Lana. For a moment he looked at Clark like he didn’t really know what to say to him, but then he smiled. “I’m glad that we can finally both be happy.”

“Yeah,” Clark said; nothing more, nothing less. Then he just walked away in search of a drink.

Chloe stared dreamily after Clark as he walked away. Turning back to Lex and Lana, she said, “Sorry, he can be... moody.”

“Right?” Lana giggled.

“That’d by my queue to leave you two to your girl talk,” Lex said, before planting a kiss on Lana’s cheek before turning away to greet some more guests.

“Men,” Lana said, laughing again.

“Yeah, but Clark’s just...” she trailed off, not knowing if she could even come up with words to match his beauty.

“I know that feeling,” Lana said, turning serious. “Clark can seem like the most amazing person in the world, but things are never really what they seem when it comes to him.”

“It’s not like that with us,” Chloe said. It seemed like Lana was trying to make Chloe rethink her relationship with Clark, but to what end? She was getting married to Lex, she couldn’t just keep Clark around as a backup and not allow him to ever move on from her. Furthermore, Chloe was finally happy, and Lana, being her best friend, should want that for her.

“I’m not saying it is,” Lana sighed. “I just know how long you’ve been wanting this, and it would be very easy for him to hurt you. I just want you to be careful.”

“Right,” she said. “Well, nothing like that is going to happen between Clark and me.” She turned around to go find Clark.

**Xx**

His engagement dinner had been going nicely, he guessed. Apparently after much deliberation, Clark had shown up just to give him the cold shoulder. The only reason he had been invited was because he was the boyfriend of the maid of honor, but Lex had thought that maybe now that he was with Chloe, he would stop pining over Lana, and might give Lex another chance. Of course, he’d had no such luck. He just wanted to shake the man and tell him that not everything in the world revolved around Clark Kent.

He looked at his beautiful bride-to-be, though, and forgot all about the lying farm boy. She caught his gaze and smiled. This whole situation might have been borne out of deception and desperation, but if any change meant they wouldn’t be here tonight, Lex would do it all over again. She was going to be his _wife_ , and it would finally mean more than his past marriages. He loved Lana, and he was damn sure that if Lana didn’t love him she would not have agreed to marry him under any circumstances. It was the kind of woman she was, and it made it a thousand times easier to know that she wasn’t going to betray him or try to kill him.

The clinging on a glass as Chloe stood up caught Lex’s attention. Chloe’s speech was supposed to go after Lex’s, what the hell was she doing?

Lex decided, though, that it would be alright. Although her boyfriend was a complete asshole, Chloe would never do anything to ruin Lana’s day. Throughout his friendship with Clark, he had seen Chloe go from despising Lana to accepting her as a sister. She was an admirable woman, and even through her thinly veiled hatred for Lex, she loved Lana and wouldn’t ever hurt her.

“Lex was supposed to tell Lana how much he loved her,” Chloe started. “And then I was going to tell her how happy I was that she’d found true love… but there’s more fun than that to be had.”

“Chloe!” Lana practically shrieked.

Lex could only mentally prepare himself for the train wreck that was no doubt to follow.

“Instead, my own love has a few words he’d like to share.”

“No,” Lex said. No fucking way was he letting this happen. “No, no, _no_!”

Clark smirked and stood up anyways. “But Lex,” he said. “You’re going to want to hear this.”

Any color Lex had in his face was now gone. He knew Clark, and Clark was going to say what Clark wanted to say. It was one of the most infuriating things about him.

“It’s funny,” Clark said. “I was the best man at his last wedding… now I’m only an afterthought.”

“Some best man you were,” Lex said, gritting his teeth. “You didn’t even show up to the wedding.”

“Not the point,” Clark shook his head. “As the best man, I gave my speech about Lex and Helen at the rehearsal dinner.” Lex winced at Helen’s name. Since their disastrous wedding nights and the events that followed, she had only been known as Dr. Bryce, Ex-Wife #2, or Psycho Bitch From Hell, but never Helen. “To everyone else, it was an ode to them, but to get the feelings right, I had to make it an ode to Lana and me.”

“Clark, please, stop it!” Lana spoke up.

“Lana, this is so beneath you,” Clark said, more condescending than pleading. “I thought you wanted a fairytale wedding someday, with a prince to sweep you off your feet. Who would’ve thought you would settle for a shotgun wedding to a billionaire.”

There was a collective gasp throughout the room, and Lex wanted to kill Clark.

He stood up and slammed his glass on the table, the contents spilling over. “It is time for you to leave!”

“You don’t get to decide that,” he practically growled.

Then, before he could even think, his throat was being crushed by a powerful force. Right before he passed out, he could almost make out Lana pleading with Clark.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Chloe's worst fears come true, she shares a goal with Lex: stop Clark before he does something reeeeally bad.

_6x13 - Crimson, Part 3/3_

When Chloe regained awareness, it took her a minute to figure out she was at the Luthor mansion. It took her another minute to figure out exactly why she was there, but that meant that she was missing a day of her memory. She looked into her cousin’s eyes with about a million questions, but when she saw who was standing next to her, the only thing that came out of her mouth was, “ _Jimmy Olsen_?”

“Hi, Chloe,” the ghost from her past waved at her. Chloe could only stare at him. “I guess you don’t remember, but you walked in on Lois and I… having a date.” Chloe could only let her jaw drop almost to the ground. “I know you always said you lived in a weird town, but damn! Rocks that mutate people?”

“Something happened with the meteor rocks?” Chloe looked from Jimmy to Lois.

“Yeah,” Lois said. “You and Clark were acting really weird, so Jimmy and I decided to use some of that investigative journalism we all love so much.” At this point, Chloe couldn’t help but laugh. Sure, Lois had seen her fair share of weird things in her past couple of years in Smallville, but that did not make up for the fact that she worked for a trashy tabloid. Still, Lois had to start somewhere, and Chloe wasn’t going to try and stop her from her newfound passion for journalism. “Anyways, we found out that at the party you guys went to, there was a ‘love expert’ or whatever using red meteor rocks. Have you even heard of such a thing?”

“Red meteor rocks?” Chloe asked. This was bad, this was really bad. Lois nodded slowly. “Lois, where’s Clark?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged. “He was gone when I got here. Which is weird, because he was all over you. Except for, you know, when he turned all creepy, and wouldn’t shut up about wanting to kiss me.”

“What?!” Chloe practically shrieked. She could hardly believe her ears. Maybe this had something to do with red kryptonite, but she thought she’d been completely overreacting about Clark’s kiss with Lois when she thought he was Oliver. Turns out, not so much. “Oh god,” she said, and the room began to spin. She grabbed the nearest chair, and sat down.

Lois kneeled down next to her, and Jimmy remained standing behind her. “I’m really sorry,” Lois whispered to her cousin.

“It’s not your fault,” Chloe said, trying to focus on breathing. She looked slowly around the room and finally noticed that something was not right. She had been in her own little world, and somehow she had failed to notice that none of the guests were happy, and she couldn’t spot Lana anywhere. “Where’s Lana, isn’t this her party?”

Lois only offered a shrug. It was apparent she had only arrived after whatever went down.

“Your boyfriend took her,” Chloe spun around to face a very angry and hurt Lex. “He was about a breath away from killing me when she offered herself up to him.” She could see it in his eyes when his heart sunk. “Now I intend to get her back.”

“Lex,” she said, standing up and putting a hand on his chest. “Whatever’s going on with Clark, however deep this is…” Chloe paused to think about what she even wanted to say next. “Maybe Clark isn’t completely over Lana, and maybe he’s even starting to develop some new feelings for Lois, but I think, just maybe, he does care enough about me that I can get through to him.” She could almost spot a touch in sympathy in the billionaire’s eyes, but it disappeared almost as soon as it arrived. “Let me go with you.”

**Xx**

“Clark, this is crazy!” Lana racked her brain to think of anything to get out of this situation. She had only agreed to leave with him, because it was obvious he didn’t really have any qualms about killing Lex in that moment.

“Tell me you don’t love me,” he forced the issue.

“What about Chloe?” she pleaded. His grip on her arms was painfully tight, and the tears stung against her eyes. She would not let them go, though. She would not show him her weakness, not now. “Things have been going well there, it seemed.”

“This, this isn’t about her!” he screamed, and for the second time in her life, she had begun to fear for her life in the hands of Clark Kent. The first time, though, he was trying to kill her because he was imagining her with Lex, now it was because she was really with Lex. “This is about you and me!” He stared straight into her eyes, and then lowered his voice. “This about you betraying me with Lex fucking Luthor.”

Lana was still terrified, but if she had learned anything living with Lex for the past few months, it was to never back down in the face of such injustices. At this point, it didn’t even seem like Clark knew what he was saying, and Lana needed to fix that. “ _I_ betrayed _you_?” she laughed, incredulous. After that, she tried to make herself sound as calm as possible. “I waited, for years, for you to open up to me. I stood by your side and I held your hand. You lied to me for years. It got to the point where I hated myself for letting it go on. I’ve been walked all over my entire life, and I just couldn’t take it from you, Clark. You, who were supposed to make me feel like the most important thing in this world. Instead I felt like shit. So I left you. And then your dad died, and you needed me… so I had to be there for you. I did everything for you, and you still couldn’t let me in. After everything, after all of the months I put up with your crap… and then _you_ left _me_!”

At this point, Clark opened his mouth to speak, but at some point while she was talking, Lana’s façade of confidence turned into real confidence. She shrugged herself out of his incredibly strong arms and turned around. “You looked me right in the eye and you told me you didn’t love me. You broke my heart, and Lex was there for me.” She turned around again, so that she could meet his stare. “Clark, this isn’t about whether or not I love you. There’s nothing I can do about that. This is about what is right for everyone, and you and I… we don’t work together.

“We hurt each other, and we burn each other to the ground. We love each other, but we can never be happy.” He tried to look away from her, but she put both hands on his face and forced him to keep looking at her. “I think the first time I’ve seen you happy in such a long time was when you and Chloe got together. It’s obvious you can talk to her about… the things you couldn’t share with me. As for my relationship with Lex, he understands me in ways I could never get you to. We both have so much going for us right now, so why do you want to try to screw all of that up for something with no future?”

When she let go of Clark, she didn’t know what to expect, but what she got was complete silence. She had rendered him completely speechless.

**Xx**

Lex was driving even faster that normal, and he could see that Chloe was clutching onto the seat beneath her, but he needed to find Lana as quickly as possible. Chloe was the one who insisted on accompanying him, and if she had a problem with the way he was driving, it just wasn’t his problem.

“I’m sorry about my part in what happened,” Chloe finally broke the silence. Lex admired that she wasn’t trying to apologize for Clark. She had no control over him and she knew that. It was refreshing.

“Yeah well, it’s not like you were exactly yourself,” Lex admitted, still staring straight through the windshield. He wanted all of his attention on getting to that farm where he knew Clark had predictively taken Lana.

“Yeah,” Chloe said quietly. “I just wish I could remember.”

Lex felt a twinge of empathy for the woman next to him. He knew what it felt like to be wronged by Clark. That was why he and Lana were so close. Chloe was just the latest in a long trail of victims. The worst part of it all was that Clark couldn’t even see it. He was so wrapped up in making sure everyone else stayed on the straight and narrow that he abandoned his relationships and made everything worse. Lex could hardly say any of this to Chloe, though. That woman was loyal to Clark until the end, and she would always run back to him.

The rest of the ride was passed in silence, neither of them knowing exactly what to say to each other. They had spent so long hating each other, they didn’t even remember how to have a civil conversation.

When they arrived at the farm after what felt like an eternity, Lex reached into his glove box and pulled out his gun.

“Whoa!” Chloe jumped back. “What the hell, Lex?”

“I’m going to get Lana back, at any cost,” Lex said as he turned off the safety.

**Xx**

“You know what, Lana?” Clark decided he was not going to just take that from her. “You’re right. We could never have a future together, do you know why?” She only stared back at him, waiting for him to continue. “It’s the same reason that, yes, I’m happier with Chloe than I ever was with you. It’s because I _trust_ her.”

Lana looked like she was about to hit him, and Clark almost wished that she would try, so that he could show her how easily he could foil her.

“She’s independent, but she’s loyal. She’d die before she’d let me get hurt, and she lets me know it, too.” He stared deep into her eyes with purpose. “You were just a pretty face.”

That was all it took to get Lana to slap him. If he hadn’t been invulnerable, it probably would’ve hurt, too, but all he could do right now was laugh.

“You don’t have anything Chloe has,” he said, as he shoved her so that she hit the railing of the loft. He watched as her body crumpled to the ground. She tried to get back to her feet, but he ran to her almost, but not quite, at superspeed. Kneeling down next to her, he whispered, “I’m not quite done with you yet.”

**Xx**

“I don’t care how far over the edge he is right now,” Chloe was trying her hardest not to scream right now. After all, Lex was the one with a gun in his hand. “You are not going to hurt Clark!”

“I don’t think you understand, Chloe,” he practically growled back. “I know you don’t remember, but back at the mansion, I thought I was going to die. Clark wasn’t going to stop. Lana saw this, too, and she made him stop. But the look in his eye when he forced her to come with him… Chloe, I’ve never seen a look so blood-churning in my life. Especially not on the face of Clark Kent.

“Now, we can start out doing it your way, but if I think Lana or I are in danger, I will not hesitate to use this.”

“Just, please, Lex,” Chloe could only plead at this point. “I know you’re going to do what you can to save Lana, but I can stop Clark from hurting her. However bad things look when we go in there, you need to let me take care of it.”

“I told you we could do it your way.”

“I know,” she said. “I just need to make absolutely sure. I don’t want to lose him.” She turned to look at Lex, while willing the tear that threatened to fall to remain still. “I love him.”

**Xx**

When they got out of the car, Lex heard a crash from inside the barn. He made a run for it, but somehow Chloe was able to catch up to him, and pull on his arm, making him stop.

“Lex, I need to go in the house and get something first,” Chloe said in an effort to calm him. She really needed to work on that, because it didn’t work. “Please promise me you won’t go in there until I get back.”

“He’s hurting her!” was all he could say in return.

“Please, Lex, you saw it yourself. Clark is very dangerous right now, and you don’t need to get caught up in that.”

“Fine,” Lex said, remembering the fear that coursed through him as Clark’s hands crushed his windpipe. Chloe seemed satisfied and turned and ran as fast as she could to the house.

Lex turned around as he heard another crash inside the barn. “Screw this,” he said. Yes, he believed Chloe that Clark was dangerous, and that was exactly why he needed to go in there. He was not going to leave Lana alone in there with whatever version of Clark had decided to come out to play this week.

As he made his way into the barn, he thought he could hear Lana whimpering.

“Lana?” he called out.

**Xx**

Lana took Lex’s voice as a beacon of safety and started to run to him. Clark wasn’t really worried about either of them getting away, though, so he started to calmly walk after her.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he found Lana hiding behind a gun-toting Lex. The sight made him laugh.

“You’re going to shoot me?” he said through his laughter.

“If I have to,” Lex replied. If only he knew his courage wasn’t going to get him anywhere this time.

“Then shoot me,” Clark said, walking towards Lex. He walked right up to the gun, and then looked Lex in the eye. When it was clear Lex wasn’t going to pull the trigger, Clark yelled, “Bang!”

Lex still looked him directly in the eye, although Clark thought he saw a hint of fear. Still, Lex had tenacity, he had to give him that much. Without much effort at all, he took the gun from Lex’s hand, and then pointed it at the bald head.

He laughed a little as he put his finger on the trigger ready to pull. “You know, your brains would go all over Lana’s face. It might shut her up for once.”

“There’s something seriously wrong with you,” Lex said, even as Clark held all the cards.

“Maybe,” Clark smiled as he tightened his grip on the gun. When he tried to pull the trigger, though, he felt all of the strength drain out of him at once. As he fell to his knees and lost his grip on the gun, he knew it could only be kryptonite. The source of the pain was behind him, but he didn’t even have the energy to see who it was.

Along with his strength, though, Clark could feel something else leave his system, something that didn’t belong. All at once, Clark wanted to cry. He couldn’t believe all that he’d done in the past day. Between Lana, Lex, Lois, and Chloe, Clark didn’t even know how he was ever going to set things right.

Maybe it didn’t even matter, he thought as he saw Lex go for the gun again. It was now pointed at his face and he didn’t have a way to defend himself. A pitiful “sorry” was all he could muster.

“You’re sorry?” Lex laughed, and Clark could feel his heart beating in his chest. The tears started to slip out, and Clark had no way of stopping them.

“Lex, don’t shoot him,” the voice behind him was definitely Chloe, and he didn’t blame her for wanting to use kryptonite on him.

“I really don’t think he deserves another chance,” Lex said, without even attempting to veil the anger in his voice.

“Lex, please,” this time it was Lana talking. He didn’t know why she was trying to save him now, but it seemed to work, as Lex threw the gun on the ground.

“Just get Lana out of here and go,” Chloe said. “I’ve got it from here.”

Instead, though, Lex walked toward Clark, and then knelt down next to him. Clark wanted to try and get away, but he was too weak. “Whatever you did to Lana,” he whispered, so that only he and Clark could hear. “You’re going to pay.”

Lex stood up, and then looked at Chloe was still behind Clark with the kryptonite. “Thank you,” was all he said. Then he turned around, grabbed Lana’s hand, and led her out of the barn.

**Xx**

When Chloe finally hear Lex’s engine start, knelt down beside Clark.

“Chloe, please… you’re hurting me,” he said weakly.

“Good,” she said, before throwing the rock as far as humanly possible. She stood up and turned around so that Clark wouldn’t see the stream of tears that was now making its way down her face.

“Chloe,” he said, and she heard him easily get up. “I’m sorry… I don’t really know why I did any of that, I just need you to know...”

“Shut up,” she cut him off. “It was red kryptonite, but please don’t try to use that an excuse for your behavior.” She wiped her eyes and then turned around to face him. “You really hurt me, Clark.”

“I don’t really know what else I can say,” Clark said, as he turned his gaze into the ground.

“Good, then we don’t really need to talk,” she said. The truth was, she wanted more than ever to hold Clark and tell him everything was alright. She wanted to forgive him and go back into the relationship she had waited for so long to be in, but she couldn’t allow herself to lose herself in him so easily. She couldn’t let him walk all over her and get away with it.

“Chloe, please,” he said.

“Clark, I need some space,” she said, and started to make her way to the barn door.

Before she could reach it, though, she felt Clark grab her arm, and turn her around to face him. “I get it,” he said. “I just want to let you know… you waited for me for a long time, Chloe. Now it’s my turn to wait for you.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chloe makes a new friend, and Lois tries to help.

Chloe’s head was pounding as she stepped out of the elevator and into the basement of the Daily Planet. The weekend had come and went without sleep as she dealt with yet another bout of Smallville memory loss, this time complete with the knowledge of a betrayal on a whole new level.

She had always been afraid of Clark hurting her like this; that was why she pulled away from him after the spring formal. This, however, hurt more than anything she could’ve imagined. After all these years, she finally got Clark’s attention, only to find out she was sharing it with not only Lana, but _Lois_ as well. It may have been the red kryptonite acting, but Chloe knew only too well that its influences only went so far. Clark was only acting on feelings he actually had, whether he’d previously buried them or not.

Was she not good enough to be the only one on his mind? Clark was a hero; maybe he deserved more leeway in these matters. Still, Chloe knew she had to stay away from him to keep herself from exploding. That was why she ignored all of his phone calls and e-mails, and even had Lois keep him away from the apartment. Lois was all too happy to keep “that bastard that hurt my cousin” at bay. At least Chloe would always have her.

As she started walking toward her desk, she noticed a male figure waiting for her. Her breath caught as she feared maybe Clark had showed up at her workplace, but she soon realized the man sitting there wasn’t nearly big enough to be Clark. She breathed a sigh of relief and even smiled a little when she got close enough to see who it was.

“Hey Jimmy,” she said.

As Jimmy turned around to face her, she saw that there was a bag and a cup holder with two coffee cups on her desk. “Now that I know you work here…” he started. “Well, I  thought you could use coffee and donuts.”

“That is so thoughtful,” Chloe said, her smile widening.

“It’s been a long weekend for both of us, I guess,” Jimmy said, and Chloe could hear a twinge of sadness in his words.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Well, it seems like Clark got one thing right,” he sighed. Chloe had no idea what he was talking about and urged him to go on with his eyes. Getting the message, he turned his gaze to the floor, and then said, “Lois is not over Oliver Queen in the slightest. I was just a rebound.”

“I’m sorry, Jimmy,” Chloe said. She felt bad for him. Maybe she hadn’t seen him in years, but even now he seemed so sweet. He probably wouldn’t have survived being Lois Lane’s boyfriend anyways. “I would say that it was her loss, but it feels really weird saying that about my cousin.”

Jimmy laughed in response. “I don’t blame you,” he said. “She’s your family, and I’m just some guy you had a fling with once who never called you back.”

“Considering most of the guys I’ve ever been interested in either tried to kill me or betrayed me, you not calling me pretty much makes you the sweetest guy I’ve ever fallen for.”

“Wow,” Jimmy laughed. “Then… donuts?”

“Yeah, that’d be nice.”

**Xx**

As his call once again went to the voicemail box, Clark shut his phone.

“Maybe you just stop calling her.” He turned around and saw Lois at the top of the stairs to his loft.

He looked from her to the floor. “I just wanted to apologize. Everything happened so fast, and I never really got the opportunity¾”

“Clark, just shut up,” Lois snapped. On some level, this surprised Clark. Sure, she’d always been straight forward, but this was a whole new level of Lois’s temper that he’d never seen before. He should’ve been expecting it, though, as Lois had always been protective of Chloe, and what Clark did had obviously affected her more than anything he’d ever done to her before.

“I know that you’re sorry,” she said. “Whatever was going on, it wasn’t you.” Now this was unexpected, but based on Lois’s tone, she wasn’t stopping here, and Clark wasn’t going to like what came next. “But that doesn’t really matter.

“What matters is that Chloe finally put herself out there and you had to go and fuck everything up. You told her you were ready for a relationship with her and then you pulled the rug out from under her. You can try to tell me that you had no control over what you did, but you and I both know that’s not true.”

“If I could just explain,” Clark started, and then shut up when he realized that he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Lois right now. She came her to tell him what she had to tell him, not to hear him out in any way.

“Clark,” Lois said, almost sounding sympathetic now. “What Chloe needs right now is not an explanation; it’s time. You hurt her, and she needs to find her own way of coping. Then, once you've both thought about it for awhile, you can decide together whether it's worth it or not."

Clark nodded, realizing Lois was right about this. "I know," he said. "I finally had something in my life that was one hundred percent genuine, and I know I ruined it, but I don't want to give it up just yet."

"I know," Lois whispered. She walked up to him and hugged him. "If it's meant to be, it will find its own way."

**Xx**

There was a small hint of a smile on Chloe’s face as she walked with Jimmy up the stairs to her apartment. “I guess this is where I leave you,” she said as they reached the top.

“Yeah, I don’t really feel like living this awkward moment just yet,” he said, referring to the fact that in all likelihood Lois was just beyond the door.

“Well, I had a great time today,” she said. “Thanks for being a great distraction.”

“You’re too good of a woman to be upset about Clark,” Jimmy said, catching her off guard.

The truth was she wasn’t. It was a realization that hit her all at once. Chloe had watched him blossom from the kindhearted, if naïve, boy into a superhero. Clark was the greatest guy she had ever met. That didn’t change the fact that every time she thought of him, she could only picture him with Lana, and it broke her heart. Clark wasn’t the only one to blame for these feelings of insecurity, but Chloe just didn’t know how she could deal with going back to the girl in Lana Lang’s shadow, never mind whatever feelings he may have had for Lois.

“Thanks,” was all she said, though.

There was a look in his eyes that she didn’t quite know how to read. “You know,” he said, “just because we didn’t work out romantically, that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”

Chloe smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Me, too,” Jimmy said, before turning around and leaving.

Walking into the apartment, Chloe found that it was eerily clean. Also, there were cookies.

“Don’t worry,” Lois called out from her room. “They’re store bought.”

“Lois, you didn’t have to do this,” Chloe said.

“I figured you could use some quiet time,” Lois replied, walking out into the living room. “I also rented some DVDs.”

“What did I do to deserve the best cousin in the world?”

“There’s more,” Lois said.

“More?”

“I talked to Clark.”

Chloe froze, a thousand possibilities of the conversation they could have had running through her head. A small part of her didn’t even want to know. That part was tiny, though. “And?”

“I think he’s going to give you some space,” she smiled.

Just like that, it felt like a huge weight was lifted off of Chloe’s shoulder. She didn’t have to wonder about what to say to him when she saw him if she wasn’t going to see him.

“Thank you so much,” was all she could say before pulling her cousin into a hug.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything just goes horribly wrong... again.

It had been a couple of weeks since Clark had seen Chloe, and he thought he was doing pretty well considering, but he missed her like crazy. Even before they had taken their relationship to anything resembling a romance, he was used to seeing her practically on a daily basis. Then, overnight, she just disappeared from his life, and it felt like there was a hole. Everything he did, he felt like she should be there.

The truth was, Chloe was one of the last things he had that left him with a semblance of a life. His dad was dead, Pete and Oliver had both left, Lana had Lex, and without Chloe, he’d only seen Lois a few times. Even his mom was moving on in her life with her duties as a senator, and¾as much as he hated it¾a blossoming friendship with Lionel Luthor.

So he buried himself in his chores on the farm. The farm could never leave him, no matter how horribly he mistreated it. The thought brought a bittersweet feeling as he remembered how many times he had destroyed parts of the farm, the same way he inevitably ruined every relationship he’d ever had.

After he finished the farm work, he headed back to the house to wash up. Once inside, he noted his phone on the counter. It had been there for at least a day now. It wasn’t like he was exactly expecting a call from anyone. When his mom wasn’t home and wanted to call, she called the house phone, and nobody else really wanted to talk to him at the moment. When he looked at it, though, he saw the red notification light flash. Someone had tried to contact him.

Without very high hopes, he checked whatever he missed. He was shocked when he saw that it was a text message from Chloe sent yesterday. Why had he left his phone downstairs, again? Hurriedly, he read the message:

_Clark, I’m ready to talk. Please call me._

**Xx**

**The previous night…**

**xX**

“Wow, that movie was gr-” Jimmy started.

“Incredibly stupid,” Chloe finished.

Jimmy just looked at her and laughed. “Yeah, I thought so, too. I just thought you liked it, so…”

“Jimmy, you never have to pretend to like something just because I do,” Chloe was more than amused. Chloe’s friendship with Jimmy had been growing nicely, but he still did some things Chloe would never get over. He had a lot of great qualities, too, and Chloe definitely recognized them.

“Okay,” Jimmy said, looking at the ground and then to Chloe. “So… you wanna get some ice cream?”

“Ice cream sounds great,” Chloe said, and linked arms with Jimmy. The pair walked to the parking lot like this. Chloe had always been extremely close to her male friends. She just didn’t need to get as close as she did Clark.

“Do you ever think of moving back to Metropolis?” Jimmy asked before looking at the ground. Sheepishly, he added, “I mean to be closer to work…”

“I don’t know,” Chloe answered honestly. “I kind of like not having to pay rent.”

“Right,” Jimmy muttered, and Chloe could sense that he was truly disappointed, even if she didn’t quite understand why. She didn’t quite know what to say, though. None of the guy friends she’d had in the past wore their hearts on their sleeves the way Jimmy did, and while Chloe had thought she’d had a good sense of what was going on, she later learned Clark had been keeping practically his whole life a secret from her, and Pete was in on it. With Jimmy, though, it was obvious.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Chloe asked. This had never worked before, but she had already decided Jimmy was so completely different than anyone else she knew, so maybe, just maybe, he might differ in this way, too. She could hope, at least.

“It’s just,” Jimmy finally lifted his gaze from the ground to meet Chloe’s. “Look… I know we agreed that our feelings for each other, or lack thereof, were mutual, but…”

 _Oh god_ Chloe thought. She did _not_ like where this was headed.

Just as she had feared, Jimmy closed the gap between them, took hold of her, and kissed her. As he did, a surge of emotion she didn’t expect coursed through her all at once, and, just for a second, she let her guard down, and she found herself kissing him back. When she pulled away, Jimmy had a smile on his face. It was perhaps his first genuine smile all night, and it made Chloe hate herself.

“I just realized something,” she said.

She didn’t get the chance to complete her thought when Jimmy said, “Shh.” She could feel his hot breath on her face. “I knew,” he said. “I knew all along.”

“No, Jimmy,” she said, pulling back completely from his embrace. When his eyebrow raised slightly, Chloe didn’t want to go on, but she couldn’t lie to him. Not now. Not about this. “I realized… that it’s Clark. It’s always been Clark.”

By this point, she had closed her eyes, because she couldn’t stand to see Jimmy’s reaction, but she did hear him sigh. When she opened her eyes again, they boy looked downright dejected, once again wearing his heart on his sleeve, and this time it was killing Chloe. It was all she could do to keep from crying and pulling him into her arms, but that wasn’t going to help anything.

“Oh,” was all he said.

“Look,” Chloe said. “You’ve been the greatest friend that I could’ve asked for through everything, and maybe I led you on a little by being so clingy, but I thought I was pretty honest about how I felt about you.”

“Yeah,” he said. “You were.” Jimmy had been looking anywhere but into her eyes, and right now his chosen spot to stare out was about a foot above her head. She honestly didn’t know how to get through to him. “I just thought… _shit_!”

“I’m sorry,” Chloe practically pleaded. “It’s just… I’ve been in love with him for so long. He was my first kiss, you know?” Jimmy looked like he couldn’t care less. “It was my first day in Smallville, and I thought ‘big fish, little pond, what the hell?’”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“So that you know what he means to me, Jimmy,” Chloe said. “I’m not blowing you off for nothing, and who knows… if the situation were different, maybe you would be exactly the right man for me. But I have to follow my heart on this one.”

For the first time since she had shut him done, Jimmy looked Chloe in the eyes. “I guess the _first_ you shared with me just wasn’t special enough,” he said.

Chloe’s mouth dropped open. She could not believe what he’d just said to her. “That’s just the jealousy talking,” she said.

Jimmy just shook his head. “He hurt you!” he screamed. Chloe was taken completely by surprise. Jimmy Olsen was easily one of the most gentle and kind-hearted people she knew, and he was screaming at her. “He hurt you, and I was left to pick up the pieces! _I would never hurt you_!”

“Jimmy, please stop screaming at me,” she said, her voice cracking. She wanted nothing more than to be in her bed crying herself to sleep right now, but Chloe got the feeling that it would be a long night.

Jimmy visibly rolled his eyes, but Chloe could see that there were tears threatening to emerge. She felt the same thing in her eyes, though.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, as he turned around and unlocked the door to his car. Before he got in, he turned around again and faced Chloe. “You can find your own way home, right?”

Everything in her told her to tell him no. Her car was back at the Planet, and to get there she’d have to walk for a half hour alone in the streets of Metropolis at night. She did not particularly feel like getting into a car with Jimmy right now, though, so she just nodded in agreement instead. Chloe would find a way. She always did.

**Xx**

_I’m going to kill him,_ she thought. _I’m going to fucking kill him._

Lois’s thoughts went along these lines for the entire drive to Metropolis. She had once threatened to break Clark’s legs if he had ever hurt Chloe, and when he did, man, was she tempted to, but this…

When Chloe called her, she’d definitely been crying. Maybe when she was younger, Lois had seen her get a little emotional, but the Chloe she knew now was so much stronger. Jimmy had to have really fucked things up tonight. _You mean, besides stranding my cousin in the middle of Metropolis?_ she thought.

Almost unconsciously, her foot pressed harder on the gas pedal. The sooner she got to Metropolis, the sooner she could make sure Chloe was ok. And as soon as she got Chloe home and calmed down, she was going to find him.

When she finally pulled up to the diner that Chloe said she would be at, it felt like she had been driving for days… which she would totally do for Chloe. It didn’t take her long to spot Chloe through the window sitting at a table by herself with a cup of coffee. For the moment, all feelings of rage subsided and the only thing on her mind was to get to her cousin’s side, take a hold of her, and never let her go.

She got out of her car and into the diner as fast as she could. Chloe looked up almost immediately when she got inside, and she could see her broken heart in her eyes. The sight of it nearly broke Lois’s heart in two by itself. She moved as fast as she could to reach her cousin and took her into her arms, where Chloe almost immediately started crying.

“I’m going to kill that _fucker_ ,” Lois said, not able to keep it in her head anymore. It was Chloe’s response to this, though, that confused Lois. She was laughing. She was actually laughing. She had gone from crying to laughing in two seconds, and Lois couldn’t think of anything remotely funny.

Chloe pulled away from the hug and wiped her eyes. “Lois…” she said, shaking her head.

“What?” Lois said. “I’m completely serious.”

“Yeah, I know,” Chloe laughed, and briefly hugged her again. “Let’s go.”

Lois raised an eyebrow, but she wasn’t going to say no.

The two of them got in the car together and Lois noticed Chloe had taken her phone out, and was starting a new text message.

“You’re not doing anything stupid, are you?” she asked.

“No,” Chloe sighed. “I should’ve done this awhile ago.”

**Xx**

Clark pulled up outside of the Talon and took a deep breath. He still had no idea what he was going to say to Chloe. He didn’t even know what he wanted to hear from her. All he knew was that he missed her and that he wanted her back in his life. At whatever cost.

He was nervous as hell, though, that he was going to mess everything up yet again, and Chloe would never speak to him again. It was worst case scenario, but Clark felt like it was very plausible. He’d messed everything else in his life up already, including this. What would keep history from repeating itself now?

He made his way into the coffee shop and sighed a breath of relief that she wasn’t downstairs yet. That made it so that there was more time to think about what he wanted.

Clark went to the counter and ordered himself a cup of coffee as well as Chloe’s usual. Chloe’s order had pretty much remained the same for the past six years, and Clark didn’t exactly anticipate it having changed in the past three weeks. That would just be very un-Chloe-like.

He took a seat at a table near the stairs so that she would be able to see him when she came down. In his inactivity, though, he started to become a nervous wreck. What if Chloe wanted to tell him she had a new boyfriend, or she was moving back to Metropolis? He did not want to lose her again. He couldn’t lose her again.

Clark looked up and saw Chloe starting to descend the stairs. _God, she’s beautiful,_ he thought. And in that moment, Clark knew exactly what he was going to say to her.

**Xx**

She paced the living room about a million times before finally finding the guts to go downstairs and make her move, her heart rate increasing with every moment that passed. By the time she was out the door, she could feel every pump of blood flow through her veins. When his dark hair finally came into view, though, it seemed as though her heart stopped all at once. She almost wished it would, thinking perhaps that would be easier. But when Kayla, the new waitress, arrived at the table with two coffees in tow, she realized of course Clark had already ordered her usual. This man who knew her and she knew inside and out. This man who she had been through thick and thin with. This man who she had loved until it hurt, and then who had himself hurt her at the very core. No, this was not going to be easy, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Clark stood up as she reached the table and pulled her into a light hug. She would have preferred a stronger hug, and, quite frankly, she probably needed it, but she didn’t want to delay any longer, so she just took a seat. “Hi,” she said.

“Hi,” he replied, a slight smile appearing. “It’s good to see you.”

“You, too,” she said. “You have no idea.”

 _Well, it’s now or never,_ she told herself. They could make small talk for an hour, or they could actually discuss what they had come here to discuss.

“So, I…” she started.

“Actually,” Clark interrupted. “I was wondering if I could say something first?”

Hesitantly, she said, “Sure.”

“I’m sorry, that was rude,” he said. “It’s just… ever since I got your message I’ve been thinking about what I actually wanted. And the only thing that I knew I wanted was you.” He took a deep breath, and then looked up at her. “I love you.”

Chloe’s breath caught. When Jimmy had kissed her last night, she knew that she loved Clark, and now Clark was telling her he loved her. This moment was so perfect that it made the previous night completely worth it. She didn’t even know what she felt about Jimmy now, but if she could just stay here with Clark for the rest of the eternity, that didn’t even matter. She was about to tell him that she loved him, too, when Clark started speaking again.

“And I never, ever want to lose you again,” he said. His eyes turned down towards the table. “We had the best friendship I could have ever dreamed up. Then, we took the next step, and that was even better.”

Clark was about to say “but.” Chloe could feel it. _Why?_ she asked herself. _Why does there always have to be a “but?”_

“But…” Clark said, and Chloe slouched into her chair, bracing herself for whatever was going to come after that word, knowing that it could not be anything good. “I mean, we had plenty of fights when we were friends, but we were always able to work through it. We always stayed friends. Then, when we started dating, I screwed up, and I’m not belittling what I did to you, but was it really worse than anything I did to you when we were just friends?”

Chloe didn’t say anything, but she knew what the answer was. “Maybe I overreacted,” she said, trying in vain not to sound like she was pleading.

“No, you didn’t,” Clark said. “That’s my point. When we’re… _together_ I have so much more power to hurt you. I can’t stand that I hurt you so bad that you didn’t even want to see me anymore.”

She felt like her world was crashing down around her. She knew that when Clark got like this, it would be near impossible to try to sway him. Her gaze turned to her coffee.

“There’s nothing I want more than to pick up where we left off, but I need you in my life, Chloe, and I just know that if we do that, I’m going to screw things up so bad that we’re going to ruin everything we’ve ever shared.”

Chloe looked back up at him. “Where does that leave us, then?” she asked.

“Well, I was hoping,” he muttered, “that we could go back to being very good friends.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The need for revenge is contagious.

Chloe stared into her cup of coffee. _Just friends_. That’s what he’d said he wanted to be. But could she really go back to doing that with him? Pretending like her feelings for him were strictly platonic? She’d done that for years, and at first, it had nearly killed her. She’d thought that she’d found a way to cope with it, but then they kissed and they were slowly moving together and everything was perfect. She wanted nothing more in the world than to go back in time and just relive those moments over and over. She didn’t even like to think about the series of events that came afterward. The one that ended with their declarations of love being turned back around into friendship territory without any warning.

 _“I’m the girl of your dreams masquerading as your best friend.”_ The letter she had read to him all those years ago rang through her head. How could she go back to feeling the way she did in high school? After everything?

Somewhere in her thoughts, Lois had walked into the room completely unnoticed.

“Aren’t you late for work?” she asked.

“I’m not going,” Chloe sighed. Lois raised an eyebrow, but Chloe shook it off. “I’m just not feeling so well.”

“I take it things didn’t go so great with Clark?”

Chloe sighed. She didn’t really want to talk about Clark right now, but Chloe knew that Lois was like her in that once she got her teeth in something, she didn’t let go. When Chloe had told her that she was going to have the talk with Clark, she’d latched on. It had been the first big thing since she’d broken up with Clark and Lois had split with both Oliver and Jimmy. Chloe almost felt like she was about to break Lois’s heart along with her own.

“He just wants to be friends,” she said simply. She knew Lois was going to harass her about everything anyways. She didn’t need to give all the details up front.

Lois looked at her like she didn’t believe her. Like she actually didn’t believe her. Because that was something that Chloe would just make up for the hell of it.

“No, he doesn’t,” was Lois’s response.

Chloe wanted to sigh in frustration, but she figured she had sighed enough for one day. “Lo, I’m just telling you what you he told me.”

“Well, he lied,” she said.

“Does it really matter?” Chloe shook her head. “I can’t be with him if he’s resolved to not be with me.”

Lois sat down next to her on the couch and put a hand on her shoulder. Chloe resisted the urge to turn around and start sobbing in her cousin’s comforting shoulder. After the last couple of days she’d had, it was everything that she could do not to.

“I don’t understand,” Lois said, almost a whisper. “That boy would do anything for you. I mean, I especially thought after you’d told him about what happened with Jimmy…”

“About that,” Chloe said, making Lois raise her eyebrow again. Lois really had that look down. “I didn’t exactly tell him about that.”

“What?” Lois asked. “Why not?”

“I didn’t get the chance,” Chloe said. “He basically came in and just said what he wanted to say. I didn’t want to tell him after that because then it would be like I was guilting him back into a relationship.”

“And that would be wrong, why?” Lois asked.

“Lo,” Chloe said. “Clark’s not like the guys from Metropolis that you go out with. If you jerk him around, he’s bound to get hurt.”

“You call that jerking him around?” Lois asked, a vindictive smile creeping across her face. “You should hear some of my stories.”

“And that would help me how, exactly?”

“Chloe, why do you worry about hurting Clark so much when he obviously doesn’t pay you the same regard?”

“Because he does,” Chloe insisted. Lois stared at her for a second before she continued. “That’s why he said what he did. He said that all he did was hurt me, and that it only made things worse that we were a couple. He said our friendship was too important to ever risk losing.”

“And what about the Lana thing?”

“The Lana thing… it wasn’t him,” she said. “I mean, it was his fault, but at the same time it wasn’t.” The truth was she had forgiven Clark the moment Jimmy had kissed her. Something had snapped in her and she realized in her heart that it wasn’t completely him. It had hurt her that Clark would have chosen Lana over her under any circumstances, but the fact that there was red kryptonite involved and he didn’t have control over his inhibitions was wrong to just gloss over because she was hurt. “I can’t really explain why he did the things he did, or why I can forgive him, but Clark’s still this really great guy.”

“I know that, Chloe,” Lois said. “Clark is a wonderful guy. But just look at his track record. Either he subconsciously keeps himself from getting anything he wants, or he’s just dumb as a doorpost.”

At this, Chloe had to laugh. She figured it was probably a mixture of both, though. He did pull away whenever things got to close to him. She’d seen it happen with Lana again and again. She’d thought her relationship wouldn’t self destruct like his with Lana had because there weren’t all these lies between them, but it had, leading her to believe Clark just didn’t handle relationships very well. Maybe he couldn’t blame everything that went wrong in his life on where he came from; he could just as well be screwing some things up all on his own.

It didn’t change his intentions, though. It was his warm, caring heart Chloe had fallen for. Even when he had been lying to her she could always feel something there, something that transcended whatever other problems were going on. It was the whole reason why she hadn’t just bolted back in high school. He had pissed her off so many times, but despite all of her opportunities to do so, Chloe never decided that she was just done with Smallville. She had known that staying would be worth her while even if she couldn’t explain it at the time.

Now she knew that it was pretty much Clark pulling her back each time. Sure, she loved Pete and Lana, and all of her friends in Smallville, but she didn’t have that connection with them that she had with Clark.

She was beginning to wonder if maybe he just made everybody feel that way. It would explain why practically every girl he came into contact with, meteor freak or not, had fallen for him. Hell, he’d even charmed Lex Luthor for awhile, and when that friendship did come to an end, it had all been on Clark’s terms. Clark had been lying to the face of one of the richest men in the world for years, and still Lex never would have left him, despite his downfall from decent human being, to whatever the hell he was now.

There was definitely something about Clark, but the fact was that he had chosen her. And then he had let her go…

When she finally pulled herself away from her thoughts, she noticed Lois with a very sympathetic look on her face. Obviously she needed to re-learn how to mask her feelings, because she’d apparently gotten very bad at it.

“I wish I could stay, but I do have work to get to,” Lois said.

Chloe smiled. “Go,” she said. “Stop worrying about me!”

“Well, that’s just not going to happen,” Lois shrugged as she left the apartment.

**Xx**

Lois couldn’t figure it out. From an outside perspective, it was obvious Chloe and Clark had something very special. Why were they so content to let that go to waste? Why wasn’t Clark fighting like hell for his woman, and why was Chloe just accepting the fact that he wasn’t? They were both so afraid the relationship would fail that they couldn’t see how strong it actually was. Sure, they’d get into fights and they’d hurt each other, but they’d get over it because they were and would always be head over heels for each other. Their denials and platonic assurances meant nothing in the end.

“Well, if Chloe and Clark aren’t going to fight for Chloe and Clark, I’m going to have to fight for Chloe and Clark,” she said out loud. She really needed to get out of the habit of talking to herself, but she was alone in the elevator, so it didn’t really matter. Besides, she felt that that statement needed to be dramatic. These two people meant so much in her life, and she would do anything to make sure they got the happy ending they deserved.

Chloe was her cousin, but she was more like her sister. She’d been there through everything: her mother’s death, trying to raise Lucy. She didn’t know what she would have done without Chloe there. The only reason Lois had even come to Smallville was because she’d thought Chloe was dead, and the thought of that was nearly killing her.

And then there was Clark. Hopeless, naïve, idealistic, Clark. He had some issues, sure, but he was always there for his friends when they needed him… Lois included. Clark was with her the first time she’d faced the weird shit that went on in Smallville, and he’d even saved her life a few times. Now that she thought about it, actually… it was more than a few times. How the hell was Clark always there? But he was, and she couldn’t fault him there.

As she reached her floor, she realized she was going to need a plan. She was going to find a way to make them happy if it killed them all. She reached her desk and instead of starting to work on her current story, she started brainstorming her plan.

“Step one,” Lois wrote. “Revenge.”

**Xx**

“ _Revenge_ ,” the word tasted bitter in Lex’s mouth. Was that even really what he wanted? He wasn’t so sure anymore. There was the stunt Clark pulled at _Lex’s_ engagement dinner with _Lex’s_ fiancée, but this was so much more than that. It was years of friendship culminating in lies and distrust that tore them apart.

Lex had always known in the back of his mind that someday, somehow, this would come to a head, but now that he’d actually admitted it to himself, he decided he needed this to be on his own terms. Everything in his friendship with the guy had been on Clark’s terms. _Clark_ decided how much Lex needed to know about him and _Clark_ decided how close they were able to get. It was up to _Clark_ to tell Lex what he was doing right and what he was doing wrong. And when Lex had finally been done with it all after the meteor shower, he gave _Clark_ the opportunity to change things and _Clark_ walked away.

Lex wasn’t going to do things on Clark’s terms anymore. He couldn’t take the self-righteous boy scout coming at him with one more accusation of lying until he faced the truth. Lex needed answers, and he needed Clark to listen to him, but more than anything, Lex needed a modicum of control. He was the CEO of a billion dollar corporation, and the fact that a farmer’s son from Smallville had done this to him more than got under his skin.

Maybe it wasn’t exactly revenge Lex was after, but his plans would still work for what he wanted.

He looked down at the blueprints. He’d had his men build him a room for what he needed to do with Clark. He knew Clark wasn’t _normal_ —he couldn’t possibly be _normal_ —but he wasn’t taking him anywhere near 33.1. Lex was so angry with Clark, but the thought of him being treated like one of those _things_ did not sit well with Lex. Besides, 33.1 was too much his father’s. He knew Clark and Lionel were somehow getting closer, but he shuddered at the idea of his father having control over him in that way.

The fact that Clark wasn’t normal posed problems in their own way. The other mutants were easily taken down with drugs, but after the scene in the barn, he had some ideas about that, too. Everything was being set into motion, and Lex almost smiled at the feeling of being back in control.

**Xx**

“You are an idiot,” came a voice behind him. He knew who it was; that was undeniable. But he didn’t want to turn around. This was the last thing he needed right now. He was supposed to be reviewing the farm’s annual budget, but he couldn’t quite figure a couple things out.

 _Maybe you shouldn’t have quit college_ , the incessant voice in Clark’s mind said. He just didn’t know how his dad had always done this. One of the neighbors had helped the previous year, but this year Clark was on his own, and he felt stupid. _Supplies, feed, fertilizer…_ it was all starting to blur, and he decided he just couldn’t be a farmer the rest of his life. He was way too restless for this.

He almost rolled his eyes as he turned around to face her. “What do you want, Lois?”

“Well, I wanted to talk to your mom and maybe borrow some eggs,” Lois said, but Clark felt like that wasn’t where she was going to leave it. If he knew anything about Lois she was here to talk to Clark about Chloe, and borrowing his eggs was like saying, “I was in the neighborhood.” Granted, in Smallville, you’re pretty much always in the neighborhood, but it still wasn’t the reason she came over.

“So you want to talk to me about Chloe…” Clark said.

“Damn,” Lois rolled her eyes. “When did you get so perceptive, anyways?”

“Well, I did just take my vitamins.” He almost hoped it would warrant a laugh, but he knew better than that with her. With Lana, it might work like a charm, but Lois didn’t grow up with small town humor.

“Ok, smartass,” she said. “So, about Chloe…”

“We’re fine,” Clark said.

“So fine that my cousin is taking personal days to deal with being… fine,” Lois offered.

 _Damn,_ Clark though. He really thought Chloe was fine with everything. Obviously, he’d been mistaken, but he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He’d meant everything he’d said to Chloe, and he still felt the same way. He loved her more than he’d loved anyone, but he just kept ruining things, and he didn’t want to ruin Chloe. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

“Maybe you could’ve done with some more vitamins last night,” Lois said. Great, capitalize on the fact that Clark had tried to be funny and had failed miserably. That was exactly what he needed right now. “Because I think your Chloe meter was definitely off. She’s anything but ok with this.”

“But she said…”

“Clark, shut up,” Lois cut him off. “Chloe’s been practicing hiding her feelings from you for six years. It’s almost automatic by now. And your little _announcement_ last night kept Chloe from telling you something important.”

**Xx**

Lois tried to read the emotions on Clark’s face, but they were moving too fast for her to tell. Until he settled on anger, that is.

“I’m going to kill him,” Clark said, and in that moment Lois saw so much of Jonathan Kent’s temper in her son that it made her want to laugh. But she knew better than that. The last thing Clark wanted right now was to be laughed at after such a statement, however uncharacteristic it was.

“Don’t worry,” Lois said. “I’ve got everything covered on the Jimmy front.”

Clark looked up at her, searching.

She put a hand on his shoulder. “Believe me, he’s going to wish he never crossed _my cousin._ ”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jimmy and Lana both have something to get off their chests.

She had almost thought it. She had lived in Smallville way too long to forget the fact that even thinking those words was practically a death wish. _What else could_ possibly _go wrong?_ Chloe mentally chastised herself.

Theoretically, she believed in the principle of the wheel of fortune. Life was incredibly random, and a girl like Chloe could attain everything she could possibly hope for only to have everything crumble around her in a heartbeat. What she had grown skeptical of was that the wheel would spin again and eventually land on some happier circumstance.

As it was – thanks to her brain’s decision that she could not simply quit her life, or even her job – Chloe was at work trying to avoid Jimmy Olsen at all costs. Thankfully, that part had actually been quite easy, as it seemed that Jimmy wasn’t going to bother her. It wasn’t unfathomable; they had both worked here for months without knowledge that the other worked in the same building. After she’d broken up with Clark, though, Jimmy’s work had suddenly required him to be around Chloe a lot more.  There was no way it had been a coincidence, but she’d never mentioned it to him, because he made her feel better.

That was why when Chloe came back to work after playing hooky for a week and basically wallowing in her room, Jimmy’s absence was a bit conspicuous. She was grateful because she wasn’t exactly ready to see him right now, but it still felt weird. It felt like something was missing. _But then,_ Chloe mused, _what_ isn’t _missing?_

**Xx**

He felt like he couldn’t breathe. Who had stolen all of the oxygen out of the room?

The woman was still speaking, but Jimmy had retreated into himself. There was no way this could be happening. But it was, and there wasn’t anything Jimmy could do to stop it. What could he do? Yell at her? This woman was only the messenger; she didn’t hold any power over the situation any more than he did.

When she finished speaking, Jimmy simply nodded and stumbled out of the office in a daze. As he pushed the button for the elevator, he had no idea what to do next.

It had seemed that for once in his life things were finally starting to come together, but apparently that was not what destiny had in store for Jimmy Olsen. God was probably sitting up in heaven right now laughing at the fact that he thought he could have that.

He wasn’t about to deny that he held complete responsibility for what happened with Chloe, but he really hadn’t meant to completely destroy their friendship. And he didn’t even want to think it, but despite the fact that he’d misread any and every social cue, he’d have to be an idiot if he didn’t consider the fact that this event was related to the night he’d left Chloe stranded, since only a week had passed.

The elevator arrived and he hit the button for the basement. He felt marginally better now that he had something that he knew he had to do. He was going to get to the bottom of this and find out what, exactly, was going on. Then, he was going to do anything and everything he could to keep his life from falling apart.

**Xx**

His head was spinning. That was all it ever seemed to do since Lois had come to talk to him. She really wasn’t lying when she said that Clark was an idiot. He’d been so wrapped up in his own thoughts about how to handle the situation that he hadn’t seen that Chloe was hurting. That was what he had been trying to put an end to. Leave it to Clark to screw up like that.

But Clark’s self-hatred at the present moment was nothing when he thought of how much he hated Jimmy right now. He desperately wanted to confront the man, but he knew that if he did he might not be able to control himself. He would have to trust Lois. She wasn’t exactly an unbiased third party, and Clark was pretty sure she could kick Jimmy’s ass without even trying, but trusting her was a lot easier than trusting himself right now. He’d just have to remember that Jimmy probably deserved whatever Lois was going to do to him.

But did he?

Clark didn’t really have the full story, and Lois wasn’t exactly the most reliable source given the circumstances. Plus, she hadn’t even been at the “scene of the crime”, as Chloe would call it.

From the few times Clark had met him, Jimmy seemed like a pretty decent guy.

Still, whatever had happened, Chloe had gotten hurt. Lois had gone and picked up the pieces, and Clark was… nowhere to be seen. Because of his own mistakes. He didn’t know how to deal with that.

A knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts and he pulled himself up from his spot on the couch to answer it. When he opened the door, he was taken by surprise by who was standing in front of him.

“Lana…”

His former girlfriend gave him a halfhearted smile. “Is this a bad time?”

“No,” Clark said. “Come in.”

Lana walked past him and stood in the living room. There was an awkward tension in the air. They’d been through a lot, climaxing in Clark kidnapping Lana, and Chloe and Lex having to intervene. He didn’t even know why Lana would ever want to see him again.

“I don’t want you to come to the wedding.”

Oh. That was why.

Clark could only stare at her, and soon her expression melted.

“That came out wrong,” she said.

“It sounded pretty straightforward to me,” Clark said. “And I can’t say I really blame you… after everything.”

“It’s not about that,” Lana said. She sighed. It was obvious that this was hard for her. Clark decided it was probably best to stay quiet for now. “You and I both know that you weren’t completely in control the night of the engagement party. Why you decided to lie about is beyond me… everybody in Smallville falls victim to these unexplained personality changes.

“Lex knows it wasn’t really all you, too, but he’s having trouble letting it go.”

Clark had kind of expected that after that night… Lex had said he’d get revenge.

“Clark, I know you’re more capable of handling yourself than you let on, but you know Lex… what he’s capable of.”

He froze. What did she know?

“And yet, you’re marrying him in a few days.”

Lana swallowed and looked into Clark’s eyed. “Lex loves me, and I love him.”

“But you just said he’s capable of hurting me,” Clark said. “Why would you agree to spend the rest of your life with someone like that?”

“It’s not that simple,” she said.

“Really,” he said, feeling the emotion build up. He knew he should probably try to keep it in check, but Lex was a difficult subject. “Enlighten me.”

“I know how it feels, Clark,” Lana said, and this point it almost sounded like she was begging. “I know how it feels to want to get close to you and have you shut yourself off. Do you want to know how that feels?”

Clark could only look at the ground. He had his reasons for not telling Lex and Lana his secrets, but a nagging voice in the back of his brain was telling him they weren’t the only ones. An image of Chloe’s face when he told her that they should just be friends passed through his brain, and he grimaced.

“It feels horrible,” she said. He ventured a look into her eyes, but now she was looking away, looking as though she was a million miles away. Then the tears fell down her cheek and he almost cursed. He hated this, hated how many times he’d made someone cry because of his stupid secret, and he hated that there was nothing he could do about it. “So, yeah, maybe I know where he’s coming from on this one.”

Lana wiped the teardrops from her face and stepped towards Clark. She placed the most tender of kisses on his cheek, told him to be careful, and then started to walk away.

“Lana,” he said, and she turned around to face him.

“Please, Clark,” she said, searching his eyes. “If you ever cared about me, for even a second, you would let me go.”

“I just don’t want you to get hurt,” he said.

“You know, there was a time when I would’ve done whatever you said,” she said. “But you deciding what was best for me was what made our relationship the disaster that it was. It was what tore us apart. Now you don’t have a say in it. I’m going to marry Lex, and we will be happy.”

He wanted to say something, do something, anything, to get Lana to listen to reason. It was obvious, at least to him, that Lana could never actually be happy with Lex. Maybe for awhile, but he would show his true colors in the long run, and by then she would already be married to him, have his children. It would be too late. But there was nothing he could do to influence her now. He knew what it must have looked like from her perspective, but all he’d ever wanted was for her to be safe and happy. Now he couldn’t help her achieve that, and he had to accept that.

“Goodbye, Clark,” she said, and for some reason, it sounded final. Then, before he could even think, she reached up and kissed him again on the cheek. He stood there for what seemed like ages after Lana turned around and walked away.

**Xx**

Chloe didn’t really know how she’d gotten roped into this. She had set out to avoid Jimmy Olsen like the plague, and she really thought it’d been working. That was, until he walked up to her desk looking like a wounded puppy. She had thought that Clark was the only guy that look worked on, but a part of her couldn’t help but feel bad for Jimmy, without even knowing what was wrong.

Another part of her—the part that had been broken by both him and Clark—wanted to laugh in his face.

After a moment, Jimmy said, “I need to show you something.” She didn’t know if it selfless Chloe or curious Chloe speaking, but she cursed both of them, because when she want to tell him that she didn’t really care what he had to show her, she simply said, “Ok.”

So now Chloe and Jimmy were parked outside an apartment building where assumed he lived. _And isn’t it weird that I’ve never actually been here before?_ she thought.

“You wanted to show me this building?” Chloe asked. “It’s a nice building… I guess.”

He looked at her and shook his head no.

“Then aren’t we going to get out of the car at some point?” she asked.

“This isn’t easy for me,” Jimmy said, almost a whisper.

She sat with him, trying to work him out, until he finally decided to get out of the car. Chloe followed Jimmy into the building and up a couple flights of stairs.

“I know it wasn’t you,” Jimmy said, suddenly. Chloe looked at him, confused. He was just one big puzzle today. “I know you wouldn’t… no matter how badly I hurt you…”

Whatever it was, it sounded serious, and Chloe decided the fastest way to find out what Jimmy was talking about was to just keep her mouth shut, and let him explain himself. From his reaction in the car, she knew that he was not in a position to be pushed right now.

It turned out she was right, because as the walked down the third story hallway, Jimmy turned to her and said, “I got fired.”

A few more steps, and Jimmy stopped in front of a door. Presumably his apartment, but he wasn’t going for his keys.

“What?” she asked. “Why?”

He leaned on the wall next to the door and sighed. “They didn’t exactly say why. It’s not actually anything to do with my work, though.”

“You said you didn’t think I did anything,” Chloe said. “So you think _someone_ did?”

“I think Lois did,” Jimmy said, quietly.

Chloe was not so quiet when she blurted, “What?”

“Of course she’s pissed about what happened… that night. She made that absolutely clear to me the other night.”

“She did?”

“She still had my number on her phone…” Jimmy sighed. “I also don’t think she’s gotten over some of the things that happened between me and her.”

“What things?” Chloe asked. “I thought you said that you two broke up because Lois wasn’t over Oliver.”

“Well, I don’t think anything I did helped her get over him,” Jimmy said. “It turns out, I’m not the most reliable guy in the world when it comes to relationships… go figure.”

Chloe looked down at the ground. “I don’t get it,” she said, and then raised her gaze to his eyes. “You were a wonderful friend to me… and you seemed like you cared about Lois. We all hate rejection… I should know more than anyone… but is it really that bad for you that you have to go out and treat people like shit?”

She hadn’t meant to actually say that, but she was glad she did. It was out there now. Jimmy could do what he wanted with it.

“It’s not that,” he said. “I _did_ really care about Lois, and I _do_ really care about you. It’s not an excuse… I… take full responsibility for leaving you there like it was nothing, and hurting you. I know it won’t help to say that I’d been having a really difficult day and I’d really been looking forward to that evening, but… I’m sorry.

“This is why brought you here, actually,” Jimmy did finally take his keys out of his pocket now. “It doesn’t make what I did to either of you any better, but I just want you to understand…”

Chloe’s mind raced. Was he different? What if he was like Clark? He couldn’t have a spaceship in that apartment, could he? She hoped not, for everyone’s sake.

Before Jimmy could get the key into the lock, though, the door opened from the inside.

“James, is that you?”

An older lady popped her head from behind the door, and looked from Jimmy to Chloe. “I heard voices,” she said. “Why are you just standing here?”

Jimmy took a deep breath. “Chloe, I’d like you to meet my mom.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jimmy tells Chloe his secret, and Chloe's pissed... at Lois. Clark makes a decision about his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, this is what I have so far. I'm posting the same chapter on FF.net today. Let me know what you think ;)

She had almost thought it. She had lived in Smallville way too long to forget the fact that even thinking those words was practically a death wish. _What else could_ possibly _go wrong?_ Chloe mentally chastised herself.

Theoretically, she believed in the principle of the wheel of fortune. Life was incredibly random, and a girl like Chloe could attain everything she could possibly hope for only to have everything crumble around her in a heartbeat. What she had grown skeptical of was that the wheel would spin again and eventually land on some happier circumstance.

As it was – thanks to her brain’s decision that she could not simply quit her life, or even her job – Chloe was at work trying to avoid Jimmy Olsen at all costs. Thankfully, that part had actually been quite easy, as it seemed that Jimmy wasn’t going to bother her. It wasn’t unfathomable; they had both worked here for months without knowledge that the other worked in the same building. After she’d broken up with Clark, though, Jimmy’s work had suddenly required him to be around Chloe a lot more.  There was no way it had been a coincidence, but she’d never mentioned it to him, because he made her feel better.

That was why when Chloe came back to work after playing hooky for a week and basically wallowing in her room, Jimmy’s absence was a bit conspicuous. She was grateful because she wasn’t exactly ready to see him right now, but it still felt weird. It felt like something was missing. _But then,_ Chloe mused, _what_ isn’t _missing?_

**Xx**

He felt like he couldn’t breathe. Who had stolen all of the oxygen out of the room?

The woman was still speaking, but Jimmy had retreated into himself. There was no way this could be happening. But it was, and there wasn’t anything Jimmy could do to stop it. What could he do? Yell at her? This woman was only the messenger; she didn’t hold any power over the situation any more than he did.

When she finished speaking, Jimmy simply nodded and stumbled out of the office in a daze. As he pushed the button for the elevator, he had no idea what to do next.

It had seemed that for once in his life things were finally starting to come together, but apparently that was not what destiny had in store for Jimmy Olsen. God was probably sitting up in heaven right now laughing at the fact that he thought he could have that.

He wasn’t about to deny that he held complete responsibility for what happened with Chloe, but he really hadn’t meant to completely destroy their friendship. And he didn’t even want to think it, but despite the fact that he’d misread any and every social cue, he’d have to be an idiot if he didn’t consider the fact that this event was related to the night he’d left Chloe stranded, since only a week had passed.

The elevator arrived and he hit the button for the basement. He felt marginally better now that he had something that he knew he had to do. He was going to get to the bottom of this and find out what, exactly, was going on. Then, he was going to do anything and everything he could to keep his life from falling apart.

**Xx**

His head was spinning. That was all it ever seemed to do since Lois had come to talk to him. She really wasn’t lying when she said that Clark was an idiot. He’d been so wrapped up in his own thoughts about how to handle the situation that he hadn’t seen that Chloe was hurting. That was what he had been trying to put an end to. Leave it to Clark to screw up like that.

But Clark’s self-hatred at the present moment was nothing when he thought of how much he hated Jimmy right now. He desperately wanted to confront the man, but he knew that if he did he might not be able to control himself. He would have to trust Lois. She wasn’t exactly an unbiased third party, and Clark was pretty sure she could kick Jimmy’s ass without even trying, but trusting her was a lot easier than trusting himself right now. He’d just have to remember that Jimmy probably deserved whatever Lois was going to do to him.

But did he?

Clark didn’t really have the full story, and Lois wasn’t exactly the most reliable source given the circumstances. Plus, she hadn’t even been at the “scene of the crime”, as Chloe would call it.

From the few times Clark had met him, Jimmy seemed like a pretty decent guy.

Still, whatever had happened, Chloe had gotten hurt. Lois had gone and picked up the pieces, and Clark was… nowhere to be seen. Because of his own mistakes. He didn’t know how to deal with that.

A knock on the door pulled him out of his thoughts and he pulled himself up from his spot on the couch to answer it. When he opened the door, he was taken by surprise by who was standing in front of him.

“Lana…”

His former girlfriend gave him a halfhearted smile. “Is this a bad time?”

“No,” Clark said. “Come in.”

Lana walked past him and stood in the living room. There was an awkward tension in the air. They’d been through a lot, climaxing in Clark kidnapping Lana, and Chloe and Lex having to intervene. He didn’t even know why Lana would ever want to see him again.

“I don’t want you to come to the wedding.”

Oh. That was why.

Clark could only stare at her, and soon her expression melted.

“That came out wrong,” she said.

“It sounded pretty straightforward to me,” Clark said. “And I can’t say I really blame you… after everything.”

“It’s not about that,” Lana said. She sighed. It was obvious that this was hard for her. Clark decided it was probably best to stay quiet for now. “You and I both know that you weren’t completely in control the night of the engagement party. Why you decided to lie about is beyond me… everybody in Smallville falls victim to these unexplained personality changes.

“Lex knows it wasn’t really all you, too, but he’s having trouble letting it go.”

Clark had kind of expected that after that night… Lex had said he’d get revenge.

“Clark, I know you’re more capable of handling yourself than you let on, but you know Lex… what he’s capable of.”

He froze. What did she know?

“And yet, you’re marrying him in a few days.”

Lana swallowed and looked into Clark’s eyed. “Lex loves me, and I love him.”

“But you just said he’s capable of hurting me,” Clark said. “Why would you agree to spend the rest of your life with someone like that?”

“It’s not that simple,” she said.

“Really,” he said, feeling the emotion build up. He knew he should probably try to keep it in check, but Lex was a difficult subject. “Enlighten me.”

“I know how it feels, Clark,” Lana said, and this point it almost sounded like she was begging. “I know how it feels to want to get close to you and have you shut yourself off. Do you want to know how that feels?”

Clark could only look at the ground. He had his reasons for not telling Lex and Lana his secrets, but a nagging voice in the back of his brain was telling him they weren’t the only ones. An image of Chloe’s face when he told her that they should just be friends passed through his brain, and he grimaced.

“It feels horrible,” she said. He ventured a look into her eyes, but now she was looking away, looking as though she was a million miles away. Then the tears fell down her cheek and he almost cursed. He hated this, hated how many times he’d made someone cry because of his stupid secret, and he hated that there was nothing he could do about it. “So, yeah, maybe I know where he’s coming from on this one.”

Lana wiped the teardrops from her face and stepped towards Clark. She placed the most tender of kisses on his cheek, told him to be careful, and then started to walk away.

“Lana,” he said, and she turned around to face him.

“Please, Clark,” she said, searching his eyes. “If you ever cared about me, for even a second, you would let me go.”

“I just don’t want you to get hurt,” he said.

“You know, there was a time when I would’ve done whatever you said,” she said. “But you deciding what was best for me was what made our relationship the disaster that it was. It was what tore us apart. Now you don’t have a say in it. I’m going to marry Lex, and we will be happy.”

He wanted to say something, do something, anything, to get Lana to listen to reason. It was obvious, at least to him, that Lana could never actually be happy with Lex. Maybe for awhile, but he would show his true colors in the long run, and by then she would already be married to him, have his children. It would be too late. But there was nothing he could do to influence her now. He knew what it must have looked like from her perspective, but all he’d ever wanted was for her to be safe and happy. Now he couldn’t help her achieve that, and he had to accept that.

“Goodbye, Clark,” she said, and for some reason, it sounded final. Then, before he could even think, she reached up and kissed him again on the cheek. He stood there for what seemed like ages after Lana turned around and walked away.

**Xx**

Chloe didn’t really know how she’d gotten roped into this. She had set out to avoid Jimmy Olsen like the plague, and she really thought it’d been working. That was, until he walked up to her desk looking like a wounded puppy. She had thought that Clark was the only guy that look worked on, but a part of her couldn’t help but feel bad for Jimmy, without even knowing what was wrong.

Another part of her—the part that had been broken by both him and Clark—wanted to laugh in his face.

After a moment, Jimmy said, “I need to show you something.” She didn’t know if it selfless Chloe or curious Chloe speaking, but she cursed both of them, because when she want to tell him that she didn’t really care what he had to show her, she simply said, “Ok.”

So now Chloe and Jimmy were parked outside an apartment building where assumed he lived. _And isn’t it weird that I’ve never actually been here before?_ she thought.

“You wanted to show me this building?” Chloe asked. “It’s a nice building… I guess.”

He looked at her and shook his head no.

“Then aren’t we going to get out of the car at some point?” she asked.

“This isn’t easy for me,” Jimmy said, almost a whisper.

She sat with him, trying to work him out, until he finally decided to get out of the car. Chloe followed Jimmy into the building and up a couple flights of stairs.

“I know it wasn’t you,” Jimmy said, suddenly. Chloe looked at him, confused. He was just one big puzzle today. “I know you wouldn’t… no matter how badly I hurt you…”

Whatever it was, it sounded serious, and Chloe decided the fastest way to find out what Jimmy was talking about was to just keep her mouth shut, and let him explain himself. From his reaction in the car, she knew that he was not in a position to be pushed right now.

It turned out she was right, because as the walked down the third story hallway, Jimmy turned to her and said, “I got fired.”

A few more steps, and Jimmy stopped in front of a door. Presumably his apartment, but he wasn’t going for his keys.

“What?” she asked. “Why?”

He leaned on the wall next to the door and sighed. “They didn’t exactly say why. It’s not actually anything to do with my work, though.”

“You said you didn’t think I did anything,” Chloe said. “So you think _someone_ did?”

“I think Lois did,” Jimmy said, quietly.

Chloe was not so quiet when she blurted, “What?”

“Of course she’s pissed about what happened… that night. She made that absolutely clear to me the other night.”

“She did?”

“She still had my number on her phone…” Jimmy sighed. “I also don’t think she’s gotten over some of the things that happened between me and her.”

“What things?” Chloe asked. “I thought you said that you two broke up because Lois wasn’t over Oliver.”

“Well, I don’t think anything I did helped her get over him,” Jimmy said. “It turns out, I’m not the most reliable guy in the world when it comes to relationships… go figure.”

Chloe looked down at the ground. “I don’t get it,” she said, and then raised her gaze to his eyes. “You were a wonderful friend to me… and you seemed like you cared about Lois. We all hate rejection… I should know more than anyone… but is it really that bad for you that you have to go out and treat people like shit?”

She hadn’t meant to actually say that, but she was glad she did. It was out there now. Jimmy could do what he wanted with it.

“It’s not that,” he said. “I _did_ really care about Lois, and I _do_ really care about you. It’s not an excuse… I… take full responsibility for leaving you there like it was nothing, and hurting you. I know it won’t help to say that I’d been having a really difficult day and I’d really been looking forward to that evening, but… I’m sorry.

“This is why brought you here, actually,” Jimmy did finally take his keys out of his pocket now. “It doesn’t make what I did to either of you any better, but I just want you to understand…”

Chloe’s mind raced. Was he different? What if he was like Clark? He couldn’t have a spaceship in that apartment, could he? She hoped not, for everyone’s sake.

Before Jimmy could get the key into the lock, though, the door opened from the inside.

“James, is that you?”

An older lady popped her head from behind the door, and looked from Jimmy to Chloe. “I heard voices,” she said. “Why are you just standing here?”

Jimmy took a deep breath. “Chloe, I’d like you to meet my mom.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part was really difficult to write; I really wanted to get it right. Hopefully I didn't just screw this chapter up completely, but I needed to get it done.


End file.
